


Until Dawn, Until Morning

by okiwomanofletters



Category: Original Work, Until Dawn (Video Game)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Everyone Lives/Nobody Dies, F/M, ao3 has the best format for these kinds of things, but I just want a place to keep this organized tbh, but I'm super hesitant to post this, cause it's just me putting my friends into how I think UD would have gone if we were in it, that being said you can read it if you want to see the changes that have been made?
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-12-22
Updated: 2017-07-20
Packaged: 2018-09-11 01:47:27
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 15
Words: 27,597
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8948776
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/okiwomanofletters/pseuds/okiwomanofletters
Summary: A flap of a butterfly’s wings today can lead to a devastating hurricane tomorrow.It had been exactly a year since Li’a and Jonicia’s disappearance on Blackwood Mountain. Riley shivered as the cold brisk air surrounded her, the dark snowy sky looming over the mountain. She never thought she would return to Blackwood after what had happened last year. The wooden sign to the mountain welcoming her made her freeze up, her mind recalling memories of that night. The year before had been more than a disaster; it had been an absolute nightmare.(Or: An Until Dawn re-write, with some changes, but including me and my friends.)





	1. Boom, Butterfly Effect (Riley)

**Author's Note:**

> Like it's said in the tags and in the summary, this is just a re-write of the game Until Dawn, but including my friend group. I don't know how far I'll go on with doing this, but I really wanted a place to organize this instead of hard to find posts and tags on my tumblr blog, so I put it here. I really hope no one in the UD fandom gets made at me >n< I've been a fan since the game first came out, and this is honestly just a passion project. 
> 
> Just for clarification though if you do decide to keep reading:  
> Riley = Sam; Nate = Josh  
> Juls = Chris; Alisa = Ash  
> Ise = Emily; Sage = Matt  
> Will= Jess; Danny = Mike

_A flap of a butterfly’s wings today can lead to a devastating hurricane tomorrow._

It had been exactly a year since Li’a and Jonicia’s disappearance on Blackwood Mountain. Riley shivered as the cold brisk air surrounded her, the dark snowy sky looming over the mountain. She never thought she would return to Blackwood after what had happened last year. The wooden sign to the mountain welcoming her made her freeze up, her mind recalling memories of that night. The year before had been more than a disaster; it had been an absolute nightmare.

The ten of them had all come to the mountain on the insistence of the Loya siblings. Nathan, Li’a and Jonicia’s parents were well off when it came to money, and they had graciously allowed their children to borrow the family lodge for the week; a combined trip on the mountain to spend winter break with friends. But by the first night, circumstances had already escalated.

Nathan and Juls had passed out from sheer exhaustion, and in that time, tensions has risen among other members of the group. A fight broke out between some of them, a shouting match where words were thrown like daggers, meant to stab the hearts of whoever heard them. It ended so horrifically that in a fit of embarrassment and anger, Jonicia had run out of the front doors of the lodge, straight into a growing snow storm. Worried about her sister, Li’a had run out into the snow to chase after her, but not before yelling at them all for going too far. While the guilt was bad enough once everything had died down, it got worse when the girls did not return in the morning.

By dawn, everyone was panicking.

Nathan had worried himself to literal sickness; Will had taken care of the boy as he threw up in the sink, blaming himself for not being awake during the night or being a better older brother. Riley couldn’t imagine what he was going through; in the course of just one night, he had lost both of his baby sisters. While she knew that all of them felt terribly guilty, Riley blamed herself as well, specifically for not stopping Jonicia from running out the lodge door.

She had been right there, but just watched as one of her closest friends threw open the front door to escape, tears in her eyes. Jonicia was so close, arm just within reach to stop her friend from disappearing into the unforgiving cold of the mountain. And Riley just let her go.

The police would search for months, but they never found anything.

Now they had all returned on the anniversary of the girls’ disappearance, a sort of reunion party set up by Nathan himself. He had told them all that his sisters “would be happy to see us all together again” in a video message he had sent out to the group.

The reunion is what had Riley trekking through thick snow to reach the Loya family lodge at the top of the mountain. The snow crunched beneath her boots as she made her way up to the cable car station, the only thing that allowed access on and off of the mountain. Setting her bag down on one of the plastic chairs in the waiting area, she noticed another bag in the seat next to hers. There seemed to be no one else around, and yet, next to the bag was a sleek black smartphone, which buzzed, the screen lighting up. Riley took a peak at the phone, seeing that it was a text message notification.

**New Message: Alisa 8:35 PM**

Riley quickly pulled away from the screen; she was not one to snoop in other people’s business. To her left, the cable station door opened and from the shadows of the station, a figure immerged.

“Riley?” She smiled.

“Hey Juls!”

The dark-haired boy smiled back, kicking the cable station door completely open and propping it ajar with his foot.

“Hey! Come on in, you must be freezing. I was just getting the car started to come pick us up.” Riley stood up from her seat on the gray plastic chair, slinging her bag around her shoulders again and picking up Juls’ bag as well.

“Catch!”

She threw the black smartphone at him, the boy catching it in his hands.

“Hey! Watch it! This phone has some important data on it you know.” Riley laughed, watching Juls’ face as she said,

“Oh? Like all of those text messages between you and Alisa?”

If it wasn’t so dark in the station, Riley would have sworn she saw blush on the cheeks of the boy.

The two of them entered the station, Juls slamming the door behind them loudly, making Riley jump.

“What was that for?!” Juls blinked, turning to face her. If Riley didn’t know better, she would have thought the door slam was payback for her previous remark about his not yet existent relationship to their mutual friend.

“Oh.” He replied sheepishly. “Sorry, should have given you a heads up. You have to slam it for the door to lock automatically. Nate says people have been sneaking in here to sleep and stuff, so he wants to make sure everything stays locked up.” Riley made a face, processing the information that people were just waltzing into the Loya’s property like they owned it.

Leaning out past the guard railing to look at the mountain, she wrapped her scarf tighter around her neck. “Oh! Here comes the cable car.” It takes another minute before they can enter the lift, and once Juls closes and locks the car door they start the trek up the mountain.

There are a few minutes of easy silence between them before Juls speaks from his position looking out the window. “I hope this reunion party goes well. Just for Nate’s sake.”

“Yeah.” Riley agreed. “I think this trip will do some good for all of us.” Juls turned away from the view outside the cable car window to look at her.

“Have I ever told you the story of how Nate and I became friends?”

“No.”

“Well, it was sophomore year. He has just moved here so he didn’t have too many friends. It was in history class I think. Anyway, he was annoying some people at the front so the teacher moved him to the back, where I was.”

“And?”

“And that’s it, that’s how Nate and I became friends.”

“Wow, how romantic.”

“Haha. But seriously, I mean, think about it. If Becky Lee hadn’t gotten pissed enough to bring Nate to the attention of the teacher, I might never have met him. Hell, you might be riding in this cable car with a completely different person. Boom, butterfly effect.”

 


	2. Confrontation (Sage)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> It's time to meet a few more characters!

Snow stuck to the bottom of Sage’s boots as they continued up the winding path to the lodge. The luggage in his hands were starting to cramp his muscles; why in the world the Loya’s had to set up their family lodge near the top of Blackwood mountain was beyond him. And if they could do that, couldn’t they have spent an extra million on getting cell towers installed as well? His cell phone had had no reception since stepping off of the lift; Sage hated the idea of being so cut off from the rest of the world.

Suitcase swinging in her hands, EoLise spun around, slightly ahead of her boyfriend on the path. “C’mon Sage! The sooner we can get to the lodge the sooner we can warm up!” She said, smile beaming at him.

They made their way to a wide roofed bridge overlooking a stream, setting their luggage down to stretch their backs and massage their hands. Outside of the wooden walls, the screech of some sort of creature rang through the air. It made Sage shiver. What the hell was that?

“I think there is only five more minutes’ worth of walking left.” EoLise said, moving her hair from out of her face and rubbing her hands together for warmth. Sage beamed at her, eyes lingering on his girlfriend’s face. She looked at him, confused.

“What? Why are you smiling at me like that?”

Sage stepped forward towards her, enveloping EoLise in a hug. “Well, I’m with my very gorgeous girlfriend,” he said, kissing her forehead, “and I’m about to spend several days on a snowy mountain getaway with a group of friends I like, mostly.” At that, EoLise giggled. Sage pulled away to look at her. “Why wouldn’t I be smiling?”

“RRRAAAAAAAAAHHHHHH!!”

The two of them jumped, yelling and cursing at the sudden scream breaking the moment. To their left, standing at the opening on the other end of the bridge stood Daniel Clark, laughing loudly. EoLise took a step forward towards him.

“What the hell Danny?!”

The blond-haired boy let his laughter die out before looking back up to the pair of them. “Aw come on it was just a little jump scare.” But EoLise’s anger persisted.

“Jesus Christ, you scared the shit out of us!”

“Hey, we’re out in the woods, it’s a little spooky. It was a joke!”

“That was a dick move Danny.” The mood sinked lower and suddenly a spark of tension could be felt the air.

“Augh, c’mon Ise. You used to like pulling these kinds of pranks. Don’t get like this.”

It was not lost on any of them that the outcome of this situation would define how the rest of their stay on the mountain would go. If they all left angry and upset, things could only get worse from there.

EoLise and Danny had broken up only one month after Li’a and Jonicia’s disappearance. Though the agreement to breakup had been mutual there still remained some bumps left to smooth out. Sage would have gladly announced that he and EoLise were very much in love and happy together. But he knew the importance of keeping the harmony of the group, especially tonight, and that thought is what forced him to speak up.

“Hey,” Sage said, grabbing the attention of the two, “Look, we all understand how awkward this is. But we’re not here to fight, we’re here because Nate asked us to be. So, let’s just reset everything for this trip, okay?”

EoLise smiled at him, love and thanks in her eyes. Sage knew she hadn’t meant to get so upset, she did like pulling baby pranks on people that was true. But anything involving Danny heightened her reactions to things. Danny looked at Sage as well, a look of honest respect portrayed in his eyes and body language.

“Yeah man, it’s no problem. I didn’t mean to step on anyone’s toes, so I’m glad you think of it that way. We’re cool.” Danny said with a casual wave of his hand. EoLise and Sage moved to pick up their abandoned luggage, allowing for Danny to pass by them on the other side of the bridge. “By the way,” Danny said, the two of them looking back up at him, “If Nate asks where I am, tell him I’m going to go pick up Will at the cable car station.”

“Got it.” Sage replied, giving a nod to Danny before turning his back to pick up their luggage once more. EoLise walked alongside Sage, and they started their trek back up to the lodge, hand in hand.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ise and Danny did date in real life, and they did end it, though on rougher terms? And Ise and Sage were dating for a while before, but now it's complicated... Too late for me to change the whole plot line though *nervous laugh*


	3. The Lodge (Juls)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> We finally make it up to the lodge. But how do we get in?

Riley and Juls ended up arriving at the lodge in less than fifteen minutes, twenty minutes being the usual amount of time it took to walk from the cable car station to the house. Most of the reason for this speediness came from Riley’s single handed motivation to get inside, get warm and get in the bath. The two of them had passed Danny on their way up, the boy full of laughs and jokes, telling them that he was on his way to go pick up the last member of their group, Will Soltero, who happened to be running late. They had also seen EoLise and Sage, who had settled down on a clean bench about a minute away from the opening towards the lodge, just enjoying each other’s company.

As the cabin came into sight, Riley picked up her pace and ran, collapsing onto the stairs leading to the front door of the building. “Thank god.” She muttered, giving a sigh of relief before turning to the girl sitting next to her, who seemed unphased by her sudden arrival.

“Hey Alisa.”

“Hey Riley.” The girl replied with a smile, grinning despite the coldness in the air. Juls approached the girls, barring a hesitant smile of his own.

“Hey Alisa.”

“Hey Juls.” She said, this time beaming. If the two could tear their eyes away from each other, they might have seen Riley rolling her eyes in exasperation.

“It’s great to see you again.” Juls said, stepping closer.

“Tell me about it.” Alisa agreed, “Now I can actually punch you and all those other physical things instead of just sending you emojis about it.” From behind them there came a short laugh.

“‘Physical things?’ Damn Alisa, you’re nastier than I thought.” The three teens turned around to see the source of the new addition to their conversation.

Standing at the top of the stairs, arriving from seemingly nowhere, stood Nathan Loya, their good friend and host of the party for the next few days.

“Nate!” Juls exclaimed, bounding up the lodge steps to give his close friend a tight hug. After a couple seconds the two of them pulled away and stepped apart, smiling. “Dude, it has been too long!”

“I know! That’s part of the reason why I invited you guys all back here, so we can get together and party!” Nathan turned himself in a way that he could face all three of them. “However, we have a problem. I just checked the front door and it looks to be frozen shut. In other words, we’re locked out.”

At that, Riley groaned.

“But no worries ladies!” Nathan exclaimed, eyes twinkling. “Julian and I are going to find a way to get us all in so you two don’t freeze your buns off. Stay right there, we got this.”

At Nathan’s flirty tone, both girls turned to look at each other and rolled their eyes in unison, not so much annoyed as relieved. Nate seemed to be his usual self.

“Just as long as you find a way to break in to your parent’s lodge soon Nate.” Riley commented, “I really need to take a bath.”

With that, Riley turned to look out into the forest, staring into the edging blackness of the trees. The two boys made their way down the steps, and Nathan began to walk down a snowy path looping around to the side of the house. Juls stopped however, eyes meeting Alisa’s before she gestures at him to go. He smiled.

“I’ll see you in a little bit then.”

She smiled back. “I’ll be here. Be safe.”

With a nod to the request, Juls turned his back on the two girls and quickly ran to catch up with his friend. “Nice of you to join me.” Nathan said as they started walking around the perimeter of the house, looking for a way to get in. Juls nudged Nathan with his elbow, both boys grinning.

“It’s great to see you again Nate, seriously. College has been crazy, I’m sorry I haven’t been able to see you since the summer.” At that, Nathan looked down, a solemn look on his face as he watched the snow sink into his boots, getting the cloth wet.

“Nah man, it’s fine. I get it you know, you got a life to live and shit.” That wasn’t to say that Nathan didn’t have a life to live himself, but since the disappearance of his sisters, he had switched from college dorm life to psychologist visits. Their walking slowed in pace, Juls turning to face his friend head on.

“How are you holding up? I mean, are you okay, because–”

“I’ll never be okay.” Nathan says, speaking with a dead tone, as if he was back in the living room of the lodge when he first heard the news. “Even though it’s been a year, I just, I don’t want to talk about.”

“Yeah man, anything you say.”

There is another minute of silence while the boys circle the house, looking for a way to get in. They find a loose window, one that, Nathan informs Juls, leads into one of the guest bedrooms on the first floor. As they set upon finding a way to break the hinge so they can get in, Nathan starts up a conversation once more, his smug and flirtatious mood returning swiftly.

“So, how’s the whole Alisa thing going?” Juls groaned, not making eye contact with his friend. Nathan raised his hands to the sky, sighing in exasperation.

“C’mon man, get a move on already! As one of your best friends, it is my duty to ask you when you are going to tap that.”

“I don’t know man, we’ve been friends for years and I still feel like I’m not ready, like I could do something more.”

“Something more? More? My friend, this is it here! This is the ultimate romantic getaway; do you see any parents around? You and her, alone on the mountain, its perfect! …. Yeah, just jiggle the hinge like that, it should come loose soon. …. Look man, you wine her, you dine her, and then? You take her to the bone zone!”

“Nate, we’re not in high school anymore, can you please stop using the word ‘bone zone’?”

“Nope. It’s a part of my vocabulary and I will use it.”

The two boys laughed. Nathan turned and punched Juls in the shoulder, jolting him from his work on the second window hinge.

“But in all seriousness bro, she’s not gonna wait for you forever. You gotta make a move or some lucky guy is gonna steal her from right under you. I mean, she’s been talking to Danny a lot these days…”

“Ew, dude, no, don’t ever joke about that ever again. Besides, Danny told me himself that he sees all of the girls as frie– Hey! I got it!”

Under their shared administrations the window hatches had broken, and the glass pane fell to the side in the bedroom with a clack! The two boys looked into the pitch black room before turning toward one another. Nathan nudged Juls forward, and with a heavy sigh, the boy reluctantly climbed in through the opening, falling onto the hardwood floor with a groan. Juls stood up slowly, eyes squinting to see in the darkness.

“Now what?” Juls asked, looking over to Nathan. His friend thought, eyes shifting around the room in careful contemplation. After a few seconds, he let out a cry.

“Oh!”

Digging into his jacket pocket, Nathan pulled out a lighter, which he tossed to Juls, who caught it in his outstretched hands. “Here’s the plan,” Nathan started, “In the second floor bathroom, I have a can of spray on deodorant. Remember when we filmed burning our junior year homework with a makeshift flamethrower? That’s what you gotta do on the lock, it’ll unfreeze it.”

Juls nodded, flicking the lighter on and watching the glow from the flame. “Okay. Deodorant can and lighter. Got it.” Nathan started to shift his weight from one foot to the other outside the bedroom window, suddenly looking anxious.

“Hey,” he said, grabbing his friend’s attention, “So, I have to like, go do some stuff. You up for hunting around in the dark by yourself?” Though posing it as a question, Nathan was already turning away from the open window, as if about to leave. Juls looked around the dark bedroom, watching how the flames from the lighter flickered off of the painted walls.

“Nope. But I’ll do it.” Nathan grinned at him before bringing his hand up in a lazy, mock salute.

“Godspeed.”

With that, Nathan is gone. Juls picked up the window pane and placed it back into the window, making an effort to stop more cold from seeping into the already freezing house. He wandered through the dark and empty lodge, footsteps echoing off of the stairs as he climbed up to the second floor. As he reached to turn the knob to enter the bathroom, a sudden booming sound echoed through the house, making him jump.

Juls relit the orange lighter with shaking hands, doing his best to reassure himself that it was simply the house settling. In the back of his mind however, he knew that this could not be true. The sound was too large and too sudden for it to be anything but man-made. It put him on edge.

It takes another five minutes before Juls acquires everything he needs for the makeshift flamethrower. One slightly burnt thumb later, the door is defrosted and opened. As the snow picked up in strength outside, everyone entered the lodge.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It's hard to write in everyone else's voices, when I just have my own? But this is for fun, so there isn't too much I can do.  
> The ironic part of that above statement however, is that I'm downplaying Nathan's character, believe me.


	4. Squad Reunion (Alisa)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The gang's all back together!

“Just so everyone knows,” Nathan says as they all started setting their things down in the living room of the lodge, “The house doesn’t have heat or electricity just yet. But I’m going to get a fire going soon, and after that go downstairs and start up the boiler as well. By tomorrow we can get this party started!”

There rang a half-hearted cheer among the rest of the gang, everyone too tired and too cold to even think about partying. Nathan navigated through the piles of bags and suitcases littering the living room to squat down next to the cold fireplace. As he began attempts to start a fire, the rest of the gang began to talk, it had been too long since everyone had been physically together and they had plenty to talk about.

“Ise!” Alisa exclaimed, running to hug her close friend after she had safely set down her bag. The two girls embraced each other, smiles on their faces. “I can’t wait for us to have a great time up here, I haven’t seen you in forever!”

“Me neither! You look great, how has college been?”

“Oh, not too bad. It’s nice enough in California, and I have a decent roommate, but they’re nothing compared to you, my mistress.”

“Don’t let Sage hear you call me that.”

At that, the girls laughed once more, and EoLise turned her head to look in the direction of her boyfriend, who has happily conversing with Juls and Riley. Alisa turned to look as well, and EoLise could almost see the older girl’s face turn into the heart eyes emoji. She gave out an amused sigh. She had looked the exact same way when she had realized she was in love with Sage.

EoLise stared at Alisa, her sudden lack of movement causing the other girl to look back at her. They continued to stare at each other for a bit, the miniscule muscles in their faces conveying their thoughts.

_Make a move._

_I can’t._

_Why not?_

But before Alisa could reply back, the doors to the lodge opened. It slammed closed just as quickly, capturing the attention of everyone in the living room.

“Aww man, it’s not any warmer in here than it is out there!” Danny exclaimed, rubbing his arms to hopefully create some warmth. At his side, the final member of their group, Will, nodded his head in agreement.

“You think the host of this thing would know better.”

At this, Nathan rose up and smiled, running over to hug his close friends. The three embraced for a bit, before Danny leaned out of the huddle to make a pointed and obvious look at Juls. The dark-haired boy sighed, though not without some amusement, and made his way over to the group, completing what some would have considered the fantastic four in their senior year of high school. (If someone were to say this in the presence of Riley however, she would pointedly mutter “More like the fantastic foursome” under her breath.)

Sage laughed at the sight, though it held no malice behind it. He was a year older than the rest of them, and had graduated a year before the four boys had become the tight knit group they were now.

The boys stayed this way for a couple more seconds before breaking away, almost in synchronization. Danny let out a loud whoop in cheer. “This is going to be an awesome weekend!”

The rest of the group smiled, Danny’s enthusiasm infectious. As he began to energetically talk to Will and Juls, EoLise nudged Alisa’s shoulder. The two looked at each other.

“I’m, uh, going to go to the kitchen.” EoLise stated, already turning away in the direction of the pantry. “It was a long hike up the mountain.” Alisa nodded, giving her a small smile, and watched her friend maneuver out of the room, leaving her alone. But this was not to last for long, as Riley stood up from her seat on the couch.

“I’m going to head up.” She announced, catching the attention of those in the room. “It’s too cold to stay down here, so if you need me, I’ll be taking a ten hour bath.”

“Don’t shrivel up into a prune.” Nathan called from the fireplace, still focused on starting a fire.

From behind his back, Riley rolled her eyes. “Not on my life.”

At this Alisa giggled. It had been too long since she had seen her friends. Riley made her way up the stairs of the lodge with her own luggage, wooden boards lightly creaking beneath her.

Once the girl had left, Will and Juls turned back to continue their conversation with Danny. “So, you heard it too?” Juls asked, listening intently to the answers of his friends.

Will nodded. “Yeah, we did. Danny and I were about halfway up the mountain when we heard that weird screeching scream, almost like an animal was dying. But it didn’t sound like any animal I had ever heard.”

“What do you think it could be?”

“I have no clue dude.” Danny said. “But it can’t be a deer or a bird. It’s too high-pitched to be anything like that.” A combination of the cold lodge and the unknown animal made the boys shiver.

From across the room, Alisa and Sage sat together on the couch, catching up on the months they hadn’t seen each other.

“No way!” Sage said, pushing Alisa’s laughing face away from him, “I can’t believe you would do that!”

“But I did!” Alisa insisted, still laughing. “I stood up and just walked out of class, I wasn’t going to stick around and listen to a professor badmouth the equal rights movement. So, I grabbed my books and left, and you know what? About 80% of the class left with me.”

“No.”

“Yes.”

“That is awesome!” The two laughed again, the sound echoing through the mostly empty lodge. As they came down from their laughter, Sage took a glance at the group of boys across the room and Alisa followed his gaze. Almost as if sensing them staring, Juls looked up at them and waved. They both waved back, and Sage made a sound in the back of his throat, almost as if scoffing. Alisa looked over at him.

“What was that?

“What?”

“That sound you made, what was that?”

Sage sighed, looking back at Juls then quickly to Alisa again. Beside him, the girl groaned. “Don’t do this to me Sage. Ise did this to me like five minutes ago.”

“Good! It proves we’re meant to be, and that you need to go for it already!”

“Sage!”

“I’m serious Alisa, literally everyone in this lodge knows you two like each other!”

“I am not talking about this right now.”

“What is the big deal, what is honestly stopping you from–”

“Sage.”

That stopped the older boy’s insistences, and the two of them fell quiet. After a minute, Sage started to become concerned that maybe he had crossed a line, but only moments after this thought occurred to him, Alisa spoke.

“I know that it seems so easy to everyone else, and we have stayed in touch since graduation, but it’s… different, seeing him here in the flesh. And we’ve been friends so long, I feel as if going into a relationship… it would either make us or break us.”

Sage nodded, he could see exactly where she was coming from. “Well,” he started, “Ise and I were friends for a while before we started dating too, and that came after the… accident that happened last year. You and Juls are good for each other, but it’s up to you when you decide to let something happen. It’s all your choice.” Alisa smiled, reaching over to pat Sage’s arm.

“Thanks Sage.”

“Anytime.”

From across the room, Nathan groaned in anger, seemingly unable to start a fire in the fireplace. Still talking next to him stood the boys who turned around, moving to assist their friend. Sage and Alisa watched as Nathan shooed them away, making a gesture that he didn’t need their help.

“You know,” Alisa said, rubbing her hands on the cushion of the couch, “it’s so weird to be back up here on the mountain again.”

“It is.” Sage stated. “I mean, it’s been a whole year, and yet we’re all back again like nothing happened.”

The two settled into a comfortable silence, watching the snow fall from the large glass windows to their side, when a voice rang out through the lodge.

“Nate!”

From around the corner of the kitchen stood EoLise, munching on what looked to be half of a pop tart. Her arms were folded against her chest.

“Nate, there is close to nothing inside of these cupboards. There is only a day’s worth of food in the pantry, maybe less if I decide to eat the tortilla chips on the top shelf.”

Nathan looked up from his place on the floor of the living room and groaned for the second time in the same amount of minutes.

“Augh, dude, I can’t believe I forgot! My parents had food shipped in for us a couple days ago, but it’s all in a cabin a little ways down the mountain. I was gonna bring up some of the crates myself, but I got sidetracked.”

Across from Sage, Danny cracked his knuckles. “Where are the keys to the cabin Nate? Will and I will go grab some crates to haul back up.” From beside him, Will looked at Danny in amused defeat. Despite not having seen each other for several months, Will had grown all too accustomed to being pulled into the adventures of his friends. This would be no different.

Nate smiled at the pair. “Man, you guys are lifesavers. Literally, because otherwise we would starve. Keys should be on a hook near the back door. The path from the back porch should lead you straight there.”

“As for you Juls,” Nathan said, seeing the way one of his best friends was ready to exclaim he would go carry some crates too, “I need you to stay in the lodge. I have some other work I need your help with to make sure this lodge is ready for a party tomorrow.”

Juls nodded, and the gang watched as Danny and Will maneuvered their way to the back door.

“Alright!” Danny shouted, “If Will and I are not back in the next forty minutes, assume we’re lost, and assume it is my fault.”

“Be safe!” Alisa shouted back in answer.

“And don’t get eaten!” Nathan added behind them.

The boys left the lodge laughing.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Little did they know.....


	5. Mine Detour (Danny)

“Hey!”

Danny and Will were only a couple of steps down the staircase to the path when Nathan calls them back up the porch with a yell.

“Yeah?” Will asked, his boots sticking to the snow on the porch.

“I forgot to tell you, on your way out, you’re going to need to branch off a bit to the left to turn on the generator.” Nathan said. “That will open the gates to the rest of the path.”

“Okay then, got it. Thanks Nate.” Danny said, giving his friend a salute. Nathan returns the gesture and retreated back into the lodge. Together, the two boys made their way down the staircase once more, and reached the dirt path, snowflakes continuing to fall down from the gray and dull sky above.

It’s a rather uneventful walk to the generator, both boys caught up in their own thoughts as they trudged through the snow, Danny’s flashlight and the moon as the only sources of light. It is when Danny is pulling a lever to fire up the machine that things start to get interesting.

“Hey, did you see that?” Will said, and Danny looked up to follow Will’s gaze right over Danny’s shoulder. The window of the generator shed is dirty and has obviously been untouched for quite some time, but Will is staring straight through it.

“No. Why, you see something?” Danny asked, as he gave one final pull on the machine. The generator sprang into life, gears churning loudly.

“Yeah, no, I mean, I thought I did.” Will replied. He continued to stare out through the window. “I, I thought I saw someone.”

“Who?”

“I don’t know, it was too dark to see.”

“Your mind is playing tricks on you man. There’s no one on the mountain but us, and I’m sure none of our friends followed us out.” Danny patted his close friend’s shoulder, hoping Will would find some reassurance in the gesture. They made their way out of the shed and back out on to the path.

Despite how excited he was, and he was excited to be with his friends again, it freaked Danny out to be back on the same mountain where two of his friends had gone missing the year before. It didn’t help that Nathan had conveniently scheduled the party on the anniversary of his sister’s deaths. Whether the decision was intentional or not Danny would never know; he had no intention of bringing the tragedy back up to the front of his close friends mind.

With the generator working, the two boys continued their walk through the forest, Will setting a brisk pace along the worn down path. Danny was so lost in his own thoughts that he almost ran into his friend when Will had stopped suddenly in front of him.

“What the, dude, what–”

“Police tape.”

The words stopped Danny in the middle of his exclamation. He looked up to where Will was staring to find the bright, gaudy yellow of police tape flapping in the cold mountain wind. The edges were a bit frayed from the elements, but the tape encircled a group of trees along the path.

All of a sudden, Danny felt a bit colder.

“It’s from Li’a and Jonicia.” He said, his throat constricting at the thought of his old friends.

“You think they would clean it up.” Will stated. If Danny didn’t know any better, he would have thought his friend’s statement was disrespecting the memory of the girls. But Danny did know better, and one look into Will’s eyes showed what he knew to be reflected in his own; hurt, sorrow and defeat. It had been a year, but the pain of the tragedy would never leave.

“Well, they never did close the investigation.” Danny said, mind swimming with memories of Nathan’s anger that next morning, and the endless number of cops and rescuers who had asked him questions about that night. “In the end it all happened so fast, it was like a blur. Sometimes I can barely remember what happened.”

“Well, what I remember is that we all got into a stupid fight that probably got Li’a and Jonicia killed.” Will stated, tearing his eyes away from the police tape to continue walking down the path. Danny spared one final look at the tape before jogging to catch up with his friend.

“Will, wait.” He said, grabbing the other boy’s arm to slow him down. “It’s not your fault. It’s not mine, it’s not anybody’s. We can’t help what happened last year, but we can support Nate and each other. Okay man?” Will turned to look at Danny, and nodded.

“Yeah. Thanks.”

“Anytime.”

They don’t make it more than five feet before an indescribable screech rang through the air. It was similar to the one they heard one their way up the mountain only half an hour before, and it made both boys freeze in their tracks.

“Did you hear that?” Danny asked.

“Yeah.” Will replied. “We better go get those crates.”

The two traverse through the snowy path for a few more minutes, the moon steadily rising higher up into the sky. But there is something to be said about their luck, because Will trips on a branch near the opening of a den, and falls straight over the edge.

“Will!” Danny shouted out, aiming his flashlight down to the floor of what looks to be a cavern, searching for his friend.

“I’m okay!” Will answered back, getting off of the dirty ground he had landed on. The boy looked around, the dim light enough to tell him exactly where he was. “You think Nate knows there is an abandoned mine shaft running under the mountain?”

“Probably.” Danny replied, tossing his flashlight down to his friend. “I’m coming down to you, this ledge is too steep and too high for you to try and climb back up.” He proceeded to jump down from the ledge, landing on his feet, albeit a bit wobbly. “Onwards, I suppose.”

The two continued on through the mine shaft, coughing from the accumulation of dust in the caverns and stumbling over abandoned construction work that surrounded them. From down the tracks, a mine cart came rolling at them at full speed. Will stops it just in time, grunting at the force it puts onto his shoulders to stop the heavy metal cart. Danny can’t help but think that something is down there with them; adopting the previous paranoia he had shamed Will for back at the generator. Something had to have pushed that mine cart towards them, and they find a table with half-used cigars sitting on top of it close to the exit of the shaft. It’s a small detail that Danny can’t seem to shake off, but he soon pushes it to the back of his mind when they find a map posted a bit a ways from the exit to the mine. The sign tells them that they’re closer to the cabin then he thought they would be, which is good news for them. Further up the path is a lookout point with telescopes, something that Will runs up to immediately.

“This is useful!” Will exclaimed, pointing the telescope at various parts of the surrounding environment. “I can see the rest of the mountain, and the rest of the path, I can see even see the cabi–” But he abruptly stops, pulling away from the telescope.

“What is it?” Danny asked, walking over to stand beside his friend.

“I, I just saw someone at the cabin.” Will stated, handing over the telescope to Danny.

“What?”

“Seriously man, I saw someone there, like their shadow or silhouette or something.”

Danny looked into the scope, fixated on the cabin they were headed to. As he peered at the entrance of the cabin, a white face popped up into the view of the lens, disfigured and torn up as if by a monster. Danny jumped back from the machine, blood pumping from the scare the face had given him. He peered back into the telescope, but found no sign of the face in view.

He backed away from the telescope, a feeling of fear and tension starting to prick the back of his neck.

“We should get going Will.” Danny said. “The sooner we get back to the lodge, the better.” Will nodded his head in agreement, and the two began a brisk pace back down the path. Out of the corner of his eye, Danny saw a sign that warned of bear, deer, wolf and caribou out in the woods. He couldn’t help but think that whatever it was he saw in the telescope wasn’t an animal. Whatever was making those horrific screeches couldn’t be an animal either.

Unbeknownst to Danny, Will walked ahead thinking the exact same thing.


	6. Boiler Room (Riley)

Having settled her things into one of the guest rooms in the lodge, Riley made her way through the wooden hallways to the bathroom, happy to find that the gigantic tub was still in the same place as the year before. But Riley wasn’t surprised when she found that turning both of the tub handles only gave her more and more cold water. She let out a sigh.

“Alright Loya, let’s see if you know how to hook up the hot water in your big fancy lodge.”

Riley walked back down the lodge steps with about as much patience as she could muster. She understood that Nate hadn’t had what one might call a ‘good year’. Being back up to the same lodge he had lost both of his sisters at probably had him a bit anxious and scatter-brained, but this was weird, even for Nathan. Riley had known him for a majority of her high school life, and she had never experienced a time where Nathan had been forgetful or oblivious to such vital things before. She would just have to chalk it up to last year’s accident, and she hadn’t seen her friend in quite a long time. Maybe he had changed since then.

When she reached the first floor of the lodge, only Juls, Alisa and Nathan were there.

“Well, it looks like matches won’t help.” Nathan declared, standing up from where he had been trying to start a fire the past half hour. Alisa began to boo at him in jest, and the boy laughed. “I’ll have to go to the circuit breaker and do it by hand.”

“In the meantime,” Nathan said as he looked between Alisa and Juls, “I’m pretty sure that somewhere in this crazy place we used to have…. a spirit board.”

Immediately, Juls rolled his eyes. “C’mon Nate, those things are a joke, they don’t do shit.” Riley took this as the right moment to chime in.

“No hot water seems like a major oversight, don’t you think?” She asked, walking over to the group. Nathan turned to look at her for a second before shooting her a toothy grin.

“Just gotta fire up the boiler. It’s in the basement.” Nathan said. “But I’ll go with you, basement can be a bit spooky, especially when the electricity isn’t on yet.” Riley shrugged. That was fine with her.

“While we do that, you guys see if you can find the spirit board.” Nathan said, turning to look back at Alisa and Juls who were still seated on the couch. At the suggestion of something to do, Alisa sprang up from the couch, striking a pose of determination.

“C’mon Juls, let’s go find it! We have nothing better to do, and it’ll be like a scavenger hunt!” The boy in question let out a noise that was the mix between a sigh and a groan, but stood up nonetheless. Riley watched the two make their way out of the living room together, going through a side door to enter one of the Loya family’s many game rooms in the lodge. She turned her attention back to Nathan, and with a nod the two began to make their way to a door leading to the basement.

“Hey.” Nathan said, as they descended the stairs together. “You notice how I gave Alisa and Juls a mission _together?_ ”

Riley gave a puff of indignation. “Man, I wish Juls would just go for it.” She replied, making sure to watch her step as she walked over some broken steps. “He’s so paralyzed thinking she’s gonna shoot him down.”

Nathan let out a hearty laugh, obviously finding something a bit funny in the way Riley had phrased things. “Yeah, knowing Juls, he won’t unless someone is holding a gun to his head.” They made it over the last step and were now in the basement, the musky air hitting Riley in the face like a brick wall. It was obvious no one had been down here in a long time.

“Speaking of which, where is everybody?” Riley asked. She wasn’t one to talk aimlessly around friends, but Nate had been right in saying that the basement was creepy. Without electricity, the one light source came from the small rectangular windows that were equal level with the ground outside, and every footstep left an echo to vibrate against the walls. “Did they head up to their rooms already or something?” From a few feet ahead of her, Nathan turned around with a grin, having found a flashlight for them to use. The sight of it made Riley feel slightly better.

“Nah,” he replied, “Danny and Will actually went out to a cabin down the mountain to pick up some food. And it looked like Ise had accidentally left a bag down at the cable car station, so her and Sage went to go get it. It’s just the four of us in the lodge for now.”

“I see.” Riley replied. They continued through the maze of shelves and clutter in the basement till they found the boiler, which to no one’s surprise, was turned off. Nathan moved to the side and opened the lid to what Riley could only guess was the wiring for the boiler. As Nathan fiddled with some of the wires to presumably give the water heater some power, Riley looked around the surrounding area.

To her left, propped up against an old table, was a baseball bat. She walked over to the bat and gently picked it up, gripping the base of it tightly in her hands. It seemed used, with some tape wrapped around the bottom, and several dents in the middle of the bat. She took a cautious swing, feeling the weight of it in her hands.

“Baseball in the snow?” Riley asked, walking over to stand next to Nathan. “Doesn’t sound like an easy game to play.”

Nathan looked up from his work to look at the bat, a flicker of recognition in his brown eyes. “No man, it’s not for the snow.” He said, straightening up as he took the bat from her hands. “We used to come up here in the summer too; we would have the best time up here. The whole family was there, mom, dad… my sisters.” At the pause in Nate’s sentence, Riley couldn’t help but flinch.

“It was some serious competition out there on the big lawn. But anyway, can’t go back. New reality, right Riley?” Nathan said, bringing the bat down to lean against a pipe. “Anyway, I’m supposed to be fixing this boiler aren’t I? I think I got most of it hooked up, now we just gotta turn the big guy on. We gotta increase water pressure before firing it up.”

Nathan pressed a button, and the machine started to whirl into action. Riley moved in closer, positioning herself near a lever that was flashing that it needed to be pulled. As soon as the light changed from red to green, Riley tugged on the lever. The machine went into full motion, and she let out a sigh of relief. That wasn’t too hard.

“Nice job!” Nate exclaimed, putting his hand up for a high five. Riley reciprocated the gesture and laughed, the two of them smiling at their accomplishment.

As Riley turned to begin making their way back through the basement, she heard a sound coming from around them, almost like a low growl and rhythmic thumping combined. It threw her off balance a bit, as she couldn’t pinpoint where the sound had come from.

“What the hell was that?” Riley asked, turning to look at Nathan. She saw his eyebrows rise as a series of eerie creaks echoed through the basement.

“I don’t know.” Nathan said, shrugging his shoulders. Riley turned away from him again, picking up their pace from before as the two navigated through the clutter of the basement once more. They make it through the basement without any trouble, and begin the climb back up the stairs. There was no conversation between them, but Riley interpreted it more as a calm silence rather than an awkward one. The sooner she could get to her bath, the less freaked out she would feel.

Riley made it up the stairs first, and opened the door back to the main floor of the lodge.

“Boo!”

A hooded figure draped in brown material appeared in front of her, and she gave a yelp at the sight, body swinging to get away from the figure. She put her hands up to fight, but her feet were already off balance; Nathan had to catch her before she could fall down the stairs behind them.

“Oh shit, Riley, are you okay?”

Riley looked back at the figure and watched as they took the hood of their head.

“Juls?! What the hell?”

From behind her, Nathan began to laugh, making sure that both he and Riley were only solid ground before moving to high-five his friend.

“Aww man, nice one.” Nathan said, giving him a high five before patting his friend’s shoulder. Juls smiled at Nate before turning back to look at Riley sheepishly.

“Sorry Riles. I didn’t think it would be that big of a scare. You okay?” Her friend asked, offering another apologetic smile at her. She smiled back at him, slowly coming off of her adrenaline high.

“Yeah, I’m okay. Where the hell did you even get that outfit anyway?”

“This? I found it while looking for the spirit board. Nate’s dad has a lot of old movie props lying around from his job a couple years back. I think this one is from one of those monk sanctuaries.”

Together, the three of them made their way back to the main living room, where Alisa sat on the couch inspecting the spirit board. As they entered, she looked up and smiled at Riley, before her eyes drifted over to Juls, still draped in the monk costume. She immediately got up off the couch and gestured at the boy.

“And what in God’s name are you wearing?”

Juls moved up to stand in front of the girl, his hands held together in a prayer as he bowed.

“I found my true calling.” He said, doing the sign of the cross against his chest.

Alisa rolled her eyes playfully. “Please tell me you’re going to take a vow of silence.”

Juls opened his mouth to speak, but as he began to talk, no words came out of his mouth. Instead, he began to gesture around himself and mime words as he went, making the other three laugh at the joke.

“Well, I guess I’ll head up before any of you three start summoning demons.” Riley said, turning her back to the group as she began to climb up the stairs to the bathtub. “Don’t call for help when you open the gates of Hell, I won’t be able to hear you.”

“Uh huh. Enjoy yourself Riley.” Alisa said, waving at her friend, a silly smile on her face.

“You too. Have fun with your spirit board!”


	7. Stupid Spirit Board (Alisa)

The three of them decided to move to the library for their spirit board experience. Nathan returned with an armful of candles and a lighter after only a few minutes, and they began to work on setting up both the board and the candles on the library table. While Juls read the instructions for the board and Nathan lit the candles, Alisa couldn’t help but think that this was something she wasn’t too keen on doing. She would have flat out refused to do the spirit board if there were more people; Ise would have gladly joined in, she knew, and could have taken her spot in the circle. But this was Nate’s idea, and Alisa wasn’t going to back out of something that seemed to make her friend cheer up a bit, even if using the spirit board might slightly freak her out.

Alisa took a seat at the head of the table, facing the board. To her left sat Juls, and to her right, Nate, who had just finished his work on the candles.

“Alright,” Juls said, reading from the instructions, “So it says here ‘to communicate with the spirit world you must free your mind from all preconceptions, drop all inhibitions, and generally give yourself over entirely to the will of others’.” At that, Juls made a disgusted face. “Sounds more like we’re opening ourselves up to possession than just talking to some ghosts.”

Nate shot a glare at his close friend. “C’mon Juls, this is serious.”

“Oh, I’m deadly serious.”

They all watch as Juls set the spirit pointer down onto the board. The three of them looked at each other, exchanging glances. Who was going to start?

“Okay then. Alisa.” Nate said, looking over at the girl. “Since you’re at the center of the table, why don’t you be our medium for tonight?”

Alisa looked over at Nathan, a surprised look in her eyes. But she just nodded, and placed her right index finger onto the pointer. The other boys followed suit. After taking a couple of deep breaths, she began to speak.

“Um, hello?….. Is, is anyone there? Wherever ‘there’ is?”

They all waited, staring at the pointer for an answer. Suddenly, the pointer began to move, swirling around the board as it was gaining control of itself for the first time. It took everything inside Alisa not to pull her finger away from the pointer and just scream.

“Wait a minute. Did you do that?” Nathan asked, eyes blown wide.

“I didn’t do anything!” Alisa exclaimed.

_H_

“What’s it spelling?” Juls asked.

“Hold on.”

“How is this happening? Are you moving it?”

“I swear it’s just moving!”

_HELP_

“Holy shit.” Alisa breathed out, eyes glued to the ‘P’ of the word the pointer had just spelled out. “Help?”

“How are we supposed to help?” Nate pondered, looking into the eyes of his friends for support.

“I don’t know, what does it mean?” Alisa said.

“Well, we need to know who it is if we’re supposed to help them.” Juls said, voice shaking a bit. These things weren’t supposed to actually work.

Alisa took another deep breath, using the time to try and calm down her beating heart. If this was a real, honest to God ghost talking to them, she was going to have to speak with some form of calm.

“Who are you?”

The pointer began to fly across the board again, dragging their fingers around with it. It began to spell its answer.

_S_

_I_

_S_

_T_

_E_

_R_

_SISTER_

“Sister. Sister?” Alisa said.

“Whose sister?” Nathan asked. Alisa turned to look at him, Nate’s eyes transfixed on the board as if maybe it held answers to something he didn’t want to know. His breathing was ragged, and Alisa wondered if he was going to be able to make it through this.

“Wait, guys, is this for real? You guys aren’t controlling it or anything? Nate–”

“Shut up! Ask it whose sister, Alisa.”

“Nate, it’s gotta be…”

“Yeah, okay. Well, which sister is it then?”

“Alisa, you gotta ask who it is.”

Alisa straightened up, thinking about the two sisters, the two friends that she had lost last year for such a horrible reason. Jonicia has been the one to escape into the snowstorm, tears streaming down her face, prompting Li’a to follow after. If she was speaking to one of the girls, she hoped she would be able to clear some things up.

“Who are we speaking to?…. Jonicia? Is that you?”

Slowly but surely, the pointer moved to the answer of YES.

“Oh my god.”

“This is messed up.”

“Nate,” Alisa said, staring at her friend, “Are you–”

“I’m fine.”

“Are you sure because we can stop–”

“No.”

“Nate.”

Juls took his free hand and reached across the table to clasp onto his friend’s shoulder. “Dude, it’s okay.” Nathan looked into Juls’ eyes, fear and determination in his gaze.

“I wanna hear what it has to say.”

Alisa looked between the two, anxiety pumping through her veins. “I don’t know where to start.” She admitted, looking down at her lap.

“Think about it.” Juls said looking at Alisa in a way he hoped was comforting to her, “If this is actually Jonicia, I mean, we could find out what happened to her after she left. We could give her some peace.”

“Nate?”

“I can handle it.”

“Okay. Um, let me think.” Alisa said. “Jonicia, if you can hear this, like really hear this, we all want to apologize for that fight we got into. We miss you so much.”

“She’s right. It was stupid and wrong, and I wish I had been awake to stop you, I’m so sorry.” Juls said, looking at the spirit board.

“We’re so sorry Jonicia.”

As if impatient, the pointer began to move again, spelling something out in rapid succession.

_B_

_E_

_T_

_R_

“Uh oh.”

“I don’t like this.”

“She’s spelling betrayed.”

“What does she mean?”

“It’s still going!”

_K_

_I_

_L_

_L_

_E_

_D_

_KILLED_

“No!”

“Killed?”

“We didn’t kill them did we? It’s not our fault, we couldn’t have known!” Alisa said, emotion choking her up as she spoke.

“Alisa, calm down okay.” Juls said reassuringly. “We need to find out more, a way to help her.”

“Ask her what happened.” Nathan insisted. “What does she mean?”

“Okay, okay…. How did you die?…. Jonicia, what happened to you?”

_L_

_I_

_B_

“Library.” Juls said. “Maybe there’s something in the library, here.”

_P_

_R_

_O_

_O_

“Proof! There’s proof?”

“Watch out!”

The pointer, which had been moving with more and more aggression, suddenly flew off of the board and onto the floor, and the table ceased the shaking that had occurred during the last minute. The three of them stared at the pointer before they looked at each other.

“Holy shit.” Juls breathed out.

To her right, Nathan stood up, an indescribable look on his face. Alisa had only ever seen him look like that once before, and that was in the first few desperate hours after the police had arrived that night one year ago.

“No, you know what?” Nathan said, looking between the other two. “This is bullshit, this isn’t real. Listen, I don’t know if you think messing with me is going to somehow help me deal with my grief or whatever, but this is not cool.”

Alisa stood up then, eyes leveled at the face of her friend. “Nate, you’re the one who wanted to use the spirit board, we wouldn’t–”

“I don’t need this right now okay?!” Nathan yelled, moving to get around the table and walk away. “This is bullshit!” With that, Nathan walked out of the library, harshly slamming the door behind him as he left.

Alisa sat back down in defeat, and Juls could see the pain and exhaustion in her eyes. She looked up.

“Should we go after him?”

Juls had half a mind to go after Nate himself, but he didn’t. Nathan had been in a very volatile state since losing his sisters, if anything, letting him go was probably the healthier option for the guy. Juls shook his head no.

“I think he’ll be okay, we just have to give him some time.”

“I don’t blame him.” Alisa said. “That was crazy, the pointer flew right off of the table!” Both of them turned to look back at the spirit board pointer, still on the ground a few feet away from the table. Alisa and Juls turned to look at each other again.

“You weren’t controlling it right?”

“No, I swear. Neither were you?”

“No.”

At her answer, Juls let out an involuntary shiver. This wasn’t how things were supposed to be going. No one but the three of them had seen the spirit board in action. Nate was mad at them for something they didn’t do, no one else was back from the forest yet, and here he was with the girl he had been crushing on for months in what just might be the creepiest situation of his life. Perfect.

“I think we should do as it says.” Alisa said, looking at him. “We should look in the library. What else can we do?”

 


	8. Lonely Cabin (Will)

Will didn’t know how long they had been walking along the path, but he sincerely hoped that they were getting close to the cabin. About five minutes ago, they had stumbled upon what looked to be an abandoned shack, with the roof caved in and the wooden walls broken. Neither had gone in due to how decrepit the shack looked, but Will couldn’t help but wonder why the Loya’s left so much undeveloped material stay on their property. First the mines, then the shack, he thought a family like theirs would have wanted the place cleaned up. He was one to question the decisions of others, and Will decided that once he got back to the lodge, he’d have to ask Nate about it.

Danny and Will walked on, the snow falling from the sky picking up with the wind, shooting flakes into their faces. Will hoped the weather wouldn’t get worse on their way back to the lodge, he didn’t feel like trudging through a snowstorm with crates of food in his hands.

To their right, a piercing screech came from within the woods, similar to the sound of a rabid animal trying to escape a cage. Danny and Will made eye contact for a brief second before continuing the walk through the woods. This was getting weird.

Looking down the path, Will thought he saw something propped up against a log. As he got closer to the object, it moved, and he jumped back at the scare. Danny walked up behind him, shining his flashlight on the object.

“Oh my god.”

It was a deer, lying limp against a fallen log. Its head was to the side, allowing for a clear view at the tears and gashes that were on its neck. It looked as if something had tried to claw through the deer’s neck to take off its head, and as the deer breathed in shallow breaths, blood dripped onto the snow beneath it.

“Damn.” Danny said as he moved closer to the animal, shining more light onto its wound. Will stepped closer as well.

“That’s terrible.”

“I don’t think it’s gonna make it.” Danny turned around to look at his friend. “Should we kill it?” Will nodded immediately, knowing that it was the better option compared to having the deer suffer through the pain for however long it would take to die.

“Yeah. We should put it out of its misery.” Will said. Danny agreed, tossing his flashlight over to his friend so that he could use both hands to help the deer.

“Okay, hey man.” Danny said, slowly reaching out towards the deer’s antlers. “I’m gonna make this quick for you, okay? Okay….. okay, okay, okay.” Danny psyched himself up before gripping the deer’s antlers. He let out a shaky breath before giving a decisive tug on its head, moving it to the right to make a clean snap at its neck.

Krr-plughh

Danny yelled, standing up to watch the deer head come clean off of its body and fall to the ground.

“Dude, what the fuck?!” Will shouted, staring at the deer head.

“Holy shit, it, it just came off–”

But before either boy could exclaim more, another screech echoed through the forest air, and right before their eyes, the body of the deer was quickly snatched back up into the woods.

They don’t have to look at each other to know to run.

“AHHHHH!!” Both boys yelled, feet pounding against the dirty snow as they ran down the path. Will didn’t bother to look behind him to see if what had taken the deer was following them, if it was, he didn’t need more things to freak him out.

“WHAT THE FUCK WAS THAT?!” He yelled.

From his left, Danny answered. “I don’t know, just KEEP RUNNING!”

“Look! A bridge!” Up ahead was a lonely, rickety bridge that seemed to give way across a wide stream of water. They made their way across, avoiding the holes that littered the wooden planks beneath them.

Will ran faster, only stopping to see a minor rock incline ahead of them. The path they had been taking would wrap around the incline and be generally safer, but they had something chasing after them; taking the path would mean losing time to escape.

“Over here! Danny!”

Will gestured in panic to his friend, making sure he understood what they were doing before starting to climb up the incline. Danny quickly followed behind him, the two taking turns helping each other up through tougher parts of the rock wall. As they made their way to the top out of breath, more screeches and screams echoed from behind them.

“Come on!!”

Several feet ahead of them, Will could see the cabin, a secure heaven from whatever the hell it was that was chasing them. He ran up the cabin steps, fumbling in his pockets for the key he had taken from the hook in the lodge. Behind him, Danny ran up the stairs, but tripped on a patch of ice that had frozen on the cabin porch. Will rushed to his friend.

“Dude, are you okay?!”

“I’m fine! Just open the door!!”

Will ran back to the door, inserting the key into the lock and turning it. He opened the door, hastily gesturing for Danny to hurry.

“C’mon!”

Danny made his way in and Will locked the door behind him, both boys crumpling to the floor in a state of exhaustion. They sat there for a good couple minutes, just catching their breath.

“That was close.” Will muttered after a minute, standing up. He turned to make sure the door was locked, peaking out through the pane of glass into the dark woods. “I feel like I just ran a marathon.”

“I think we just did.” Danny replied, standing up as well and turning on the flashlight in his hand. The cabin seemed like a mini version of the lodge, with a bedroom, bathroom and living room, which they were currently in. There was a couch and fireplace just a few feet away from Danny, and against the back wall, boxes upon boxes of food.

Picking up a box of matches off of the old couch, Danny moved to go light a fire in the fireplace. That would help them warm up and recuperate from the scare they had just had.

Will walked over to the window and closed the shutters, feeling slightly safer at the action. As he walked over to sit on the couch, he said, “Was it a bear?”

From his place at the fireplace, Danny shrugged. “I don’t know man, but what else could it be?”

They’re quiet for a few minutes, getting warm from the fire Danny had successfully lit. Danny was glad to know they were both safe. This would make for the weirdest story of his life, but he hoped he’d be able to laugh it off when he was in the presence of his friends again back at the lodge. Across from him, Will began to shuffle around in his seat, making the motions of searching for something.

Will stood up. “Fuck, where is it?” He asked out loud, hands patting his back pocket and looking down at the seat.

“What is it?” Danny asked.

Will sighed, sitting back down in defeat. “I lost my phone. And it’s probably somewhere out there in the woods.” Danny sighed, and patted his friend on the shoulder.

“Sorry dude. But trust me, its better the phone is out there than you.” Will gave a small laugh of agreement.

“You’re right.”

After they both had sufficiently warmed up enough, they began exploring the cabin. In one of the bedrooms, Will found a picture of Li’a propped up on the nightstand, smiling at the camera in her JROTC uniform. He didn’t go back into that bedroom again.

Across the hall, Danny came out of another bedroom, smiling triumphantly. In his hands, was a 10/22 semi automatic rimfire rifle, left behind most likely by Nathan’s dad. As Will emerged from the bathroom, Danny grinned at him.

“Let’s see a bear try and get us now!” Danny exclaimed, walking back to the living room at the front of the cabin. There the rifle would stay on the couch, while the two would open up the food crates to see what mixture of edibles they could carry back that wouldn’t be too heavy for them to run with.

As Will popped open another crate, the sound of breaking glass came from within the cabin. The two boys looked at each other.

“What was that?”

“I don’t know.”

“Can you go check it out?”

Danny grabbed the flashlight from its place in the center of the room and made his way cautiously into one of the bedrooms where the sound had come from. Opening the bedroom door, the sound of music began to fill his ears. As Danny got closer to the shattered window, he looked down to see a blue sleek smartphone on the floor, Fall Out Boy coming through its speakers.

He gently picked it up, making sure not to accidentally grab any of the glass with it. Making his way back to the living room, Danny shouted.

“It’s your phone!”

Will whipped his head around to look at his friend, staring at the device in Danny’s hands.

“What? What do you mean it’s my phone?”

Will grabbed the device, looking it over for scratches. When he didn’t find any, he looked up at Danny again. Then, in a flurry of motion, Will moved to the front door of the cabin, unlocking the door and stepping out on to the porch.

“Guys?” He shouted, snow hitting him in the face as he stared out into the woods. Will shook his head in confusion, looking between the phone and the dark forest in front of him. There was no way a bear, or any animal for that matter, could have found his phone and thrown it through the window, especially without leaving a single scratch.

“Guys come on, if this is you, this isn’t funny!”

Will was answered with silence.

With a huff, Will turned his back on the woods and went back inside the cabin, locking the door behind him. He stood with his back to the front door, arms crossed as he looked across the room at Danny.

“This is crazy.” He muttered to his friend.

There is a beat of silence between them. Danny blinked, and the next thing he sees, is something crash through the door glass, grabbing Will by the back of the head. Will screamed, his body folding in half as the thing continued to grab at him through the opening, ripping the boy’s shirt and pulling him through the glass. His friend let out another scream, trying to loosen the grip the thing had on his head. But it had taken hold of his body completely, and as fast as it occurred, Will slipped through the opening of the door, taken.

Will was gone.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Dun dun DUN. Finally, shit starts to get serious.


	9. Library Clues (Juls)

“You really think Jonicia was communicating with us?”

Alisa looked at Juls, both of their faces illuminated by the light of the candle she was holding. Here they were, in the library together, searching for the proof that was supposedly hidden somewhere in the room. She gave the boy a tight-lipped smile, before turning back to what was ahead of her.

“I don’t know. I don’t know if I wish she was or I wish she wasn’t.”

“I guess we’ll just have to find out.”

The two began to move through the library, looking at the shelves of books that the Loya family had in their possession. They each pulled one down off of a shelf and looked through it half-heartedly. What exactly was it that they were looking for? After about the fourth book, Alisa let out a sigh. Juls looked up from the book in his hands to meet her gaze.

“Nate looked really freaked out.” She said, moving to wrap her arms around herself. “He was trying to keep it together, but….” Juls moved to stand closer to Alisa, resting a hand on her shoulder in comfort. The two looked at each other, not needing words to understand the reassurance the gesture gave.

As Alisa moved to return the book back to its place on the shelf, Juls looked over her shoulder, making a face of confusion. He walked over to a grate that was on the other side of room, motioning for Alisa to come with him. As he lifted the grate off and peered into the air duct, Juls pointed down at the bottom of the duct, where bright yellow light was shining through. Alisa’s eyes widened and her face grew confused. Juls quietly put the grate back in its place and the two moved away from it.

“What is that? I thought the electricity was out.” Alisa whispered, still looking over at the grate.

“I don’t know.” Juls replied. “But there is definitely something going on. We should hurry up and find that clue.” Alisa nodded, and the two began to look through the shelves again. As they moved against a different side of the room, books began flying off of the shelves, launching themselves across the room.

Alisa gave out a yelp, and both teens raised their arms to protect their heads and faces. Once the books had stopped, they looked back at the bookshelf. Where the books had previously been, there now was a silver button, secured to the back of the wooden shelf.

The two leaned in closer to inspect it.

“Why is there a button?” Juls asked, hands in the air in a gesture of ultimate confusion.

“I don’t know. Should I push it?” Alisa said.

Juls shrugged. “That’s what buttons are for…”

Gripping her candlestick tighter, Alisa reached up to press the silver button. Immediately, the shelves began to move apart, pushing forward and then out to either side. When everything had stopped, the two saw that a room or passage lay before them. Juls could have laughed at the absurdity of it all.

Having stepped back to his side, Alisa let out a low whine. “God, what, are we in a movie right now?”

Almost as if in auto-pilot, Juls replied, “If we are, I hope it’s a rom-com.”

At the comment, Alisa turned to look at the boy, an expression of fear mixed in with amusement. For a second, Juls almost hit himself at how stupid the sentence must have sounded, and he began to open his mouth to apologize when Alisa started laughing. Her eyes closed as she let out a loud, full-body laugh, the sound echoing through the quiet library. Juls began to chuckle as well, and soon both of them were laughing hard, their actions diminishing their fear in the moment.

When they both had calmed down from their laughter, Alisa smiled at Juls, giving him a silent thank you. He smiled as well and gave her a nod. Juls turned back towards the passage.

“Leave it to the Loya’s to have secret passages in their house.”

“Should we take a look?” Alisa asked, holding the candlestick closer to the opening.

“I guess.” Juls stated, before offering his hand out to the girl. Despite the fear and creepiness he had experience the past hour, he felt oddly brave in this moment.

“Wanna hold hands?” He asked. Alisa quickly looked down at his hand before looking back up to his face. Juls winced a bit. “For safety?” He added, hoping he wasn’t ruining any chances he had left with Alisa.

“Yeah.” Alisa said, gently taking the boys hand in hers. “For safety.”

They stepped inside the passage together, finding that it didn’t go as deep as either of them thought it did. As Juls looked up at the dusty boxes that were stacked against one wall, Alisa leaned forward to look at the abandoned desk that was set up in the room. With her free hand, she picked up an old photograph lying on the desk. She recognized those faces.

It was her, the Loyas and all of their friends at a surprise party they had held for Nate. Everyone had gathered around the cake to take a picture, but in trying to squeeze in together, they had accidentally pushed Nate into smashing his face into the cake. He had started laughing, icing and cream covering his cheeks and forehead, and everyone else had followed suit. Alisa had a copy of this photo hanging in her room at home.

The only difference was that her copy didn’t have Li’a and Jonicia’s face marked off with big red X’s.

Her body must have stiffened in response to the photo, because Juls is at her shoulder, hand squeezing hers in a comforting gesture.

“What is it? Did you find something?” He asked with concern. Alisa wordlessly handed him the photo, and she watched as his eyes grew wide upon seeing the scratched out faces of the sisters.

“This must be the clue.” He said with a sigh. “We should go find Nate and tell him about this.”

Together the two walked out of the passage, moving through the rooms of the library to get out and find their friend. It wasn’t until they were successfully out of the library and had closed the door that Juls realized they were still holding hands. His cheeks grew warm at the thought, and he instinctively gripped Alisa’s hand tighter. It might have been his imagination, but he thought he felt her squeeze back too.

As they began to look around a couple of rooms, calling out for Nate, Alisa spoke up.

“I wish Ise and everyone were here.” She said. “I’d feel safer if the lodge had some laughter echoing through it as we looked.”

“Not that you don’t make me feel safe, Juls.” Alisa quickly added on, hoping she hadn’t offended the boy. She didn’t need anything screwing up her chances of dating him. “But, uh, there is some sort of safety in numbers.”

Juls let out a small laugh. “No offense taken, I completely agree.”

As they moved closer to the back of the lodge, a noise that sounded like moaning reached their ears. The two looked at each other for a split second before immediately rushing forward, trying to find the source of the noise. From behind the double doors leading to the kitchen, there came a “Help!” and Alisa whipped around to look at the kitchen.

“Did you hear that?”

“That sounded like Nate!”

“It’s coming from the kitchen—Nate?!”

“NATE?! We’re coming, hold on!”

In a rush, Alisa let her hand slip away from Juls’, running to the double doors. She opened one of the doors to enter the kitchen, when a hand visibly pulled her in, before locking the door behind them.

“Argh! Ahh!”

From inside came the sounds of Alisa struggling, as if she were putting up a fight against her attacker. Juls ran over to the doors, but banged on the doors to no avail.

“Alisa?! Alisa, what’s going on, let me in!”

Juls began to slam his right shoulder against the door, hoping that the combination of his weight and panicked force would open the doors. The first try leaves his shoulder stinging in pain, but Juls wouldn’t give up.

“Augh, Alisa?! Are you okay?”

When Juls doesn’t receive an answer from inside the kitchen, he pushed against the door again. On the third hit, he is successful, and the doors opened. He hadn’t expected it to work however, and Juls fell face forward on the kitchen tile. As he lifted his head up, he could see Alisa a few feet away from him, back turned but seemingly unconscious. Putting his hands flat on the floor to push himself up, Juls looked up, and came eye to eye with a man, dressed in messy overalls and a terrifying white cracked mask. The figure cocked his hand back, and punched Juls in the face, leaving him unconscious on the floor.


	10. Blackwood Forest Chase (Danny)

“Oh fuck! Oh fuck, what the fuck, WILL!!”

Before he even registered what he was doing, Danny had grabbed the gun off of the couch and slammed the door open, running out onto the porch. Subconsciously, he registered the sound of glass crunching beneath his feet, and the cold snowy wind hitting his face, but at the moment, all he could think about was Will.

“Holy shit, hooooly shit, Will! WILL!”

Danny jumped off of the porch steps, slinging the gun over his shoulder and tightly gripping the lantern that he had found lying on the porch. He switched it on and took off, running down a different path than the one they had used to come up to the cabin, following the screams of his friend.

As Danny ran, he kept a keen eye on the ground, not only to make sure he didn’t trip and lose time, but also to try and spot any blood on the snow. Only minutes earlier he had seen Will pulled through window glass, dragged away by whatever the hell kind of monster had that strength. It was sure to try and Will too.

Following the path through the woods, Danny could see a river ahead. From what he could tell, there seemed to be industrial grade pipes strewn across the water, and he jumped across them, not wanting to waste any time on the way to Will.  

“Will! WILL!” Danny shouted, hoping to get an answering call. He couldn’t know if he was on the right track or not, the forest was getting dense, and it being close to midnight was not helping. “Fuck, fuck!”

Danny stopped as he reached the edge of a rock decline. He took the gun off of his shoulder and looked through the scope to see if he could find the monster of a thing that took his friend. Danny took of the safety, haphazardly throwing it to the ground and looked around. Through the scope, he could see Will, several small gashes littering his arms, the boy on his hands and knees crawling to get away. But even Danny could see that he was too slow, and he watched as Will was pulled back, despite his efforts to cling to the ground.

“Danny! NO! Help me! HELP!!”

Danny cursed once more, slinging the gun back around his shoulder and looking down. This was Will, one of his closest friends that was in danger, more than likely a life-or-death situation. He had to keep pushing forward as hard as he could. Pushing off of the ledge, Danny jumped.

“Fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck!”

The slope was steep, and he somehow caught a branch just in time, gun and lantern both falling to the ground beneath him. Danny swung his legs for a second and then let go, landing on the wooden planks below him, standing straight up. He grabbed the gun and lantern once again and continued to run, dodging fallen logs and tree branches as he went.

In the distance, Danny could hear the faint sounds of Will’s yells, so he knew he was going the right way. After several minutes of running through the freezing winter snow, he reached a clearing, where ahead was what looked to be an old wooden building, most likely covering another entrance back into the mines. Despite knowing the risks, Danny jumped and slide down the rock slide, landing on the cold ground in seconds.

He ran inside the abandoned building, the sounds of Will yelling for help and screaming still vibrating off of the walls. Danny rushed down the stairs to his left, following the echoes deeper down till he was running through another mine shaft. It was similar to the one Will had fallen into only an hour or so before, except this time Danny could feel the mine shifting slowly deeper underground. Even though his legs were burning, Danny pushed on, running faster as he saw a light at the end of the shaft.

He had made it to a clearing within the mines, where construction work had obviously been abandoned long ago.

Across from him was a rickety old mine elevator, metal rusted over and paint peeling off of the sides. As Danny moved closer, a low bubbly groan came from the elevator shaft, and he ran over to see that it was Will.

Will looked awful. His shirt had been torn heavily, and Danny could see a terrible bloody gash starting from his collarbone stretching down to his abdomen. There were cuts and scrapes all over his body, and more than enough blood coming from a wound on Will’s left temple. He looked weak and limp, as if putting up a fight to stay alive had taken every ounce of his strength.

The boy turned to look at Danny, and even such small movements as turning his head had the elevator creaking and groaning above them. Danny had to get Will out of here, now.

“Oh fuck! Will, Will are you okay?” Danny asked, arms in the air around them, unsure of how to get his friend out of the shaft.

“Help…” Will mumbled, the blood from his head wound mixing with his words as it reached his mouth. As Danny reached out to hook his arms around his friend, a loud groaning sound came from above them.

It was then that the elevator wires snapped.

“WILL! NO!”

Danny watched as Will and the elevator fell together, deeper down into the Earth. He fell to his knees, eyes staring into the dark abyss that reached down in front of him.

What was he going to do now? Danny didn’t know if Will was dead or alive down there, and finding a way down the mines without starting a collapse or getting Danny himself killed looked impossible. Why was this happening? Who was doing this to them?

From above, Danny heard the familiar screech he had been hearing all night ring through the mine. Anger suddenly began to pump through his veins, giving him strength. If Danny couldn’t save Will, he was at least going to avenge his friend’s death. Danny would hunt down the son of a bitch that had done this to them.

Taking the rifle off of his back, Danny looked through the viewfinder to see a head popping out through the wooden beams higher up in the mine. Breathing out, Danny took the shot.

_BANG!_

The recoil of the gun wasn’t as bad as Danny thought it would be. As he looked through the scope again, he found that the face was no longer there. Good. He hoped he had shot that monster.

Turning to look back at the elevator, Danny began to climb the stairs that wrapped around the elevator shaft. He wasn’t sure where exactly it was that he was going, but he was going to get some answers about what the fuck was going and what it was that had hurt Will so much. Danny ran faster, anger edging him on. He couldn’t think about Will, not right now. If he did, the shock and grief of the loss of his friend would render him incapacitated. He had to keep going.

The stairs soon gave out as it got closer to the top, so Danny did the next best thing and began to scale up the metal elevator grating. He was a bit out of practice with parkour itself, but he had kept up his physique in college, so this wasn’t too difficult for him. He continued climbing up, and jumped as he reached the top, landing on a platform slightly below him.

As he got his bearings, Danny looked ahead to see a man’s silhouette walking further down the mine shaft. He grabbed the gun off of his back and aimed it at the figure. But when he pulled the trigger, the rifle didn’t fire. It seemed as if the gun had jammed itself somehow on the climb up the elevator, and Danny threw it to the ground in frustration.

Up ahead, the figure had made it through a doorway of some kind, and Danny could see it press a button that had the doorway closing. In a state of panic, Danny ran towards the door, sliding underneath of it just in time before it had closed. As he got up, he didn’t see the figure anywhere in sight, so he followed the mine cart tracks down the stretch of ground before him.

Before long, Danny had returned to the outside, where it was still freezing, snow coming down from the dark sky above. Across the hills, he could see a large, tall building outlined in the darkness.

“Oh shit.” He muttered, squinting to get a better look at the building, “What the fuck is that place?”


	11. The Decision (Juls)

“Aughhh… fuck.”

Juls groaned, slowly pushing his hands off of the cold kitchen tile to get up and look around. He blinked his eyes several times, trying to get his bearings. What had happened? How long had he been out?

The sharp pain on the left side of his head brought back the memories of what had happened. He and Alisa had found the clue in the library and went to go look for Nate. They had heard him groaning from inside the kitchen. Alisa had rushed to open the doors and help, but…

Juls whipped around, legs still a bit shaky from his knockout. He quickly scanned the area for any signs of his friends.

“Alisa? Nate? Are you guys there?”

But there was no answer to his call.

“Fuck, this is really bad.”

Sitting on top of the kitchen counter to his right was a flashlight, the light on and pointed in the direction of something. He picked up the flashlight and took a few steps forward before stopping himself, squinting to look into the distance. Then he ran, feet hitting the hardwood floor of the lodge loudly, until he stopped once again in front of a pair of double doors leading to the outside that had been left open.

The snow blew into the house, and Juls could feel the brisk winter air hit his face as he looked out into the woods ahead of him. He leaned down to pick up the item that had originally caught his attention, and inspected it.

Immediately, his blood turned cold.

It was the white scarf Alisa had been wearing not even an hour earlier, and it was stained with red. Juls dropped the scarf in shock and shut his eyes tight.

He had to get a hold of himself. He didn’t know where his friends were and they were depending on him to find them. Juls gripped the flashlight tighter in his hand and made his way down the steps of the back end of the lodge to find his friends.

The wind had picked up since his original trek up the mountain, as the snow whipped across his face. It wasn’t as bad as a snowstorm, but it had the possibility of getting worse.

He walked for a while, shouting the occasional “Nate?” and “Alisa!”, but there was never a response. He would occasionally hear the shrieking scream that he had mentioned to Danny and Will echo through the woods, but it did nothing to ease his worry.

Finally however, after ten minutes of trudging through the Blackwood forest, Juls saw what looked to be a cabin up ahead. As he got closer, he recognized it as one of the small saw mills Nathan had told him about. Miners used to cut the beams of wood that would maintain the mines for them here.

When Juls got to the entrance of the shack however, he recoiled in horror. Keeping the door to the shack propped open, was a decapitated pigs head. It seemed to have been dead for a while, its eyes glassy and the skin around the edges blackening. The dark-haired boy side-stepped the animal and entered the saw mill.

Once inside, the howling of the wind grew faint, and he could hear something he hadn’t heard before.

Crying.

“Alisa?” Juls asked, voice echoing through the small shack. It was cluttered with old tools, wood and chains hanging from the ceiling, but he could tell he was getting close.

The crying stopped, before a quiet voice replied.

“Juls? Is that you?”

“Yeah, it’s me, I’m here. Where are you?”

“In the back, I… Nate is with me, but, I’m scared.”

Juls pushed through the clutter, making frustratingly slow progress to a door on the other side of the room. A part of him felt relief to know he had found his friends, but in a place like this? What was going on?

“I’m coming, just, keep talking. What happened?”

“I, I went in to help Nate, but I couldn’t see him. And then that masked guy, he knocked me out. Now we’re both tied up, I can’t move.”

Juls finally made it to the other side and opened the door. He was in a small room that had a glass window facing out into the sawing part of the mill. Through the glass he could Alisa and Nate, who were tied up against a wall, their hands and feet bound so that they were standing straight up against the concrete. The sight of them made Juls’ breathing erratic. Fifteen feet away from them, and sitting right up against the window was a massive circular saw, the blade glinting in the moonlight coming through cracks in the ceiling. The saw was on a track, and it had two directions it could go, both leading to one of his friends.

But before Juls could do anything, a crackling came on above him, and he looked to the left of him to see a speaker start blinking green. A distorted voice spoke.

_“Hello Julian, and thank you for joining me.”_

From inside the mill, Alisa started thrashing against the ropes binding her hands together.

“Nate!” She screamed. “Ahh! Nate, Nate wake up!”

From beside her, Nathan’s head tilted up, eyes blinking in an effort to focus themselves.

“Wha-what?”

_“Tonight, we’re going to conduct a little experiment.”_

Nathan shook against his bonds, eyes whipping around the scene in front of him.

“What? What the hell is this?”

“I don’t know!” Alisa yelled in reply.

Juls ripped his eyes away from his friends and ran towards the door on the other end of the room. But it was locked and bolted shut, and no matter how much he kicked and slammed it, the door wouldn’t budge.

_“A sort of test.”_

“What the fuck is going on?! Alisa?!”

“Nate, I don’t know!!”

Juls ran back to his spot in front of the window, fists banging on the glass furiously. In a state of desperation, he threw the flashlight at the window, hoping it would shatter the glass. But it didn’t even make a mark, and why would it? This place was a saw mill, of course they would have industrial strength glass reinforcing their windows.

He locked eyes with his friends, as who he assumed was the man in the mask spoke over the intercom again.

_“For this experiment, we’ll be needing the cooperation of our two test subjects, Nathan and Alisa.”_

“Test subjects?! What the FUCK?” Nathan yelled in anger.

Alisa looked ready to start crying again.

_“But we’re going to need one more brave participant to decide…”_

Juls looked at the intercom on his left, his eyes widened in fear. The voice could not be suggesting what he was thinking.

_“…which subject will live, and which will die.”_

“NO!” Juls yelled, hands moving to cover his face as the horror of the current reality shook him to the core.

From inside the saw mill, Alisa and Nathan screamed even louder.

“Oh my god, OH MY GOD.”

“THIS CAN’T BE REAL!”

“Juls, you have to get us out of here!”

“You can’t do this to us!”

Nathan shouted at the ceiling in rage.

“LET US DOWN FROM HERE YOU MANIAC!”

_“Please, please, everyone just calm down. This is all very simple. Julian. You will see a lever directly in front of you. All you have to do is decide who you will save.”_

Juls let his hands fall from his face, and his eyes locked on to the lever slightly to the right of him. How had he not seen it before? It was placed up against the edge of the window, and it shimmered in the dim lighting. On the left was a picture of Alisa, a wide smile directed at the camera as she bowed at the end of a solo performance. Juls recognized that photo, hell, he had taken that photo seven months ago at the final school showcase of the year. On the right was a picture of Nate, eyes half shut from how loudly he had been laughing at the time. The boys had spent the night playing video games together, and Nate had made such a bad pun he started dying of laughter and…

The dark-haired boy felt a full body shudder crawl up his spine as he stepped closer to the lever. These were two of his friends, people he loved and had known for years of his life. How could he possibly pick between the two? And what if he didn’t? Then what would happen? Would the masked psycho kill them all? Why was he the one that had to choose, there was no way he could do this!

As if sensing his hesitation, from inside the mill, the large circular saw sprang to life, the blades spinning faster and faster as it slowly started to move.

Juls felt like he was going to throw up.

“No, no, no, no, no, this can’t be happening! This isn’t right!” He yelled out.

“Shit, shit no, please.” Alisa begged, eyes filling with tears.

“Okay, okay, okay, this is going to be okay.” From beside her, Nathan seemed to be trying to console himself.

“Juls, save us, PLEASE!”

_“Tick tock Julian. If you don’t pick one soon, you’re all going to suffer the consequences.”_

What was he going to do? He had no choice but to pick, but how? Juls scanned the room outside of the window, trying his best to block out the screams and pleas of his friends inside. His eyes followed the saw as it slowly made its way closer to the two, and his eyebrows shot up at what he saw on the tracks.

Was that…?

Juls pressed his face against the glass and stared at the tracks, trying to get a better look.

He was right. That psychotic masked man had rigged the fucking saw. It didn’t matter who he picked, because there was a metal piece welded on Alisa’s side of the track. Regardless of which way he pulled the lever, the saw wasn’t going to go to any track other than Nathan’s, and that meant…

“Nate…” He said, voice barely above a whisper. “I’m sorry.”

Juls turned the lever to Alisa’s side.

_“I see. You’ve chosen to save Alisa.”_

“NO!!” Nathan yelled, struggling more than ever against the ropes keeping him tied up.

“This is insane, this can’t be happening!” Alisa screamed, eyes staring at Nathan.

“Nate!” Juls shouted, fist pounding on the glass. He didn’t know if his friend could hear him. “The saw is rigged! The motherfucker rigged it! Nate! Nate, please, I’m sorry!!”

“Nate! No!”

“Stop it! YOU CAN’T DO THIS!”

The saw made its way closer to Nathan’s body, its blade level with his stomach. Alisa screamed, voice cracking at the sheer terror of the situation.

“NATE!”

“PLEASE NO!” Juls shouted as loud as he could.

“AHHHHH!”

As the saw cut into Nathan, the boy screamed in pain, blood spurting across the blade and around the room. Alisa shut her eyes and turned away from the sight, tears flowing from her eyes. Juls banged his fists against the glass helplessly, his own eyes beginning to water.

This couldn’t be happening.

The saw continued turning, hitting bone and snapping it. Nathan’s head fell forward, chin touching his chest. The saw kept moving until it started aimlessly chipping into the concrete behind Nathan. The lower half of the boy’s body slumped against the wall, completely separated from the upper half.

Nathan was dead.

Faintly, Juls heard the sound of a door beeping open, and he whipped his head to see that the door leading into the saw mill had opened.

As he ran and opened the door, he could hear Alisa’s whimpering softly against the sound of the saw, which was still spinning against Nathan’s body.

“No… no, please… tell me… someone tell me that he’s okay… please….”

Juls shut his eyes in pain, willing the tears to go away. He had to focus. He had to get Alisa down from the rope holding her up, and they had to get out of here. If he thought about Nate for too long, he… he’d break down. That psycho motherfucker was still out there, they had to get back to the lodge.

“I’m coming Alisa.” He said, trying to keep his voice from shaking. “I’m gonna get you down, we gotta get out of here.”

When he gets to the girl, her eyes are still shut, and the left half of her body is covered in blood splatters from the saw. Juls makes quick work of untying her hands and feet, and Alisa slumps into Juls’ arms. He has her, and they’re slowly making their way out of the room when Alisa makes the mistake of opening her eyes, and she screams.

“NATE! NOOO!!” She cries out, tears falling from her eyes again. “NATE! NATE!”

Juls turns Alisa around, effectively turning her away from the sight and grips her tighter in his arms as he pushes them through the door. She’s shaking underneath of him and looks ready to collapse, but they have to keep going.

“We gotta go, okay?”

His voice isn’t nearly as steady as he wants it to be, but they push on, making their way through the clutter of the mill and to the cold outside.

Juls kicked the pig head into the bushes, Alisa didn’t need to see that too, and slammed the door to the mill shut.

They made it a couple more feet before crumpling into the snow, holding each other as they try to process everything that had just happened.

He could smell the blood, Nathan’s blood, on Alisa’s sweater, and it made Juls want to throw up. But he can’t, not here, not now. He clutched her tight and they struggled to catch their breath, hands clasped together while they sat in the snow.

In the distance, Juls heard a shout.

“Juls? Alisa?!”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is where the archive comes to an end and the real updates start! Any opinions so far?


	12. Forming a Plan (Ise)

Ise knew that she would be lying if she said she was happy to be back on the mountain. Happy was far from how she felt. Though it was nice to see all her old friends again, she really wished they could have done all of this… somewhere else.

Being back on the mountain was starting to terrify her.

Even if you could forget the fact that two of her friends had died up here the year before (which, really, how could _any_ of them forget that), the piercing screams that echoed through the woods as she and Sage looked for her bag were chilling to say the least.

What made it even worse was the fact that they hadn’t even found what they were looking for! Despite walking almost halfway down the mountain, the bag was nowhere to be seen, and Ise refused to keep searched if it meant she had to keep hearing those shrieks echo through the trees around them.

It just looked like she was going to be without makeup for the next couple days, not too big of a loss.

Sage had led them down one of the side paths, and soon they returned to the main trail that would take them to the back doors of the lodge.

They had only been walking for a few minutes, when Ise heard the faint sound of a door being slammed closed behind her. She turned to see two figures walking away from a large building before collapsing into the snow, huddled together. Ise took a single step back down the path, squinting to make out the faces of the two people.

Her eyes widened when she realized who the figures were.

Ise whacked Sage’s arm in fury, quickly grabbing the boy’s attention.

“Ise? What is it?”

She pointed in the direction of the building, eyes still fixed on her friends. What the fuck?

“Juls? Alisa?!”

The figure she had identified as Juls looked up, and that was all it took.

Ise broke out into a sprint, boots sinking into the fresh snow, Sage only feet behind her.

She made it to the side of her friends in record time, stopping only when she saw the dull red stains on Alisa’s clothes that Ise knew too well to be blood.

Her two friends were huddled up close to each other, Alisa’s face safely tucked in to Juls’ shoulder. The girl was visibly shaking, her hands cupped to hold her face in abject horror. Juls looked like he was trying to keep himself together, but he was doing a poor job of it. The boy’s face was ghostly pale and his eyes appeared dead.

Sage stopped right behind her and the two immediately began to ask questions.

“Guys, what happened?! Are you okay?”

“Blood. That’s blood, Alisa, whose blood is that?!”

“Juls, what happened to you two?”

Alisa pulled her face out of her hands, and shifted from where she was sitting in the snowy dirt. Hey eyes looked to her left arm, making eye contact with the already drying blood on her pink sweater. She looked ready to cry or throw up or both.

Juls looked between Ise and Sage, eyes still glassy.

“Nate… he…”

“Nate what dude?” Sage asked, panic starting to flood his voice.

Juls looked up at them from his position in the dirt, face emotionless.

“N-Nate, he’s dead.”

Ise recoiled back, hands flying to cup her mouth in horror. Sage took a step back too, frozen by the weight of the statement.

“Wait, what?”

“What are you talking about?!”

The questions seemed to finally make Juls explode with emotion, large tears starting to well in his eyes.

“There was a maniac, a-and the saw, and I had to pick, I didn’t know which one to piCK AND IT’S MY FAULT! IT’S MY FUCKING FAULT!”

Juls looked at Ise, and in his broken eyes the girl could see all of her fears confirmed. Nathan was dead, in that building behind them and something was so very wrong.

Ise grabbed Sage’s hand on instinct, squeezing it so she wouldn’t freak out too. Sage began to push on with his questioning, both of them squatting down to make better eye contact with their two friends.

“Maniac? What maniac?”

Juls cast down his head in what seemed to be exhaustion, and Alisa turned towards them, explaining in fear.

“We w-were at the lodge, and this maniac with a m-mask, he knocked me out. Next thing I know, I’m tied up, and N-Nate, he’s knocked out right next to me. A-and then the speaker came on, and one of us was going to die, we were going to DIE and the psycho said J-Juls h-had to pick and the saw just c-cut through Nate and he’s–”

That was Alisa could get out before her grief kept her from going on.

“This is insane, we have to get out of here.” Sage said, head whipping around to the woods surrounding them, eyes searching for any possible signs of a maniac lurking among them.

Ise took a hold of Alisa’s hand and hauled her up to a standing position, copying the movement with Juls too. The two looked so shaken up, she had no doubts regarding their story. She didn’t feel any need to go into the mill behind them and see Nate for herself.

Dear god, Nate was…

“We’re going to figure this out guys, we’re gonna get help.” Ise said as firmly as she could. Juls nodded at hearing her statement, the light slowly returning to his eyes.

Alisa held out a hand to Ise, and she took it, squeezing her friend’s hand tightly, hoping it would give the girl some comfort.

“Riley is still in the lodge.” Sage said, grabbing the attention of the other three. “You two will have to go find her and warn her, we’ll meet you back there after we find help.”

Juls gave Sage a nod, slowly wrapping his arm around Alisa’s shoulders so that they could start walking together. Sage turned to look at Ise, determination in his eyes.

“Ise and I will go find some help. If there is a maniac running around, we need to contact help as soon as possible.”

“Are you guys gonna be able to make it back on your own?” Ise asked, worry filling her up as she looked at her friends.

The shock had subsided, and now it was just the grief. Alisa looked exhausted from crying, and while Juls’ tears had dried up as quickly as they came, he was still actively working to keep it together.

But the two of them nodded, almost reinvigorated by the thought that Riley had no clue what was going on. They needed to warn her.

Ise gave each of them a quick hug before they were gone, around the corner of some trees and back towards the lodge. She let out a sigh she didn’t know she had been holding and turned to look at the mill behind them.

She couldn’t believe that Nate was in there, that he was gone. Who was doing this? Why?

But before she could go down in a spiral of her own, Sage pulled her arm, tugging her into a tight hug. Ise burrowed her head into her boyfriend’s chest, and took a deep breath before pulling away.

He gave her a weak smile.

“Alright, you ready?”

“Yeah, I’m ready. Let’s go.”

With one final glance at the mill, they turned away, and started back down the path they had come.


	13. Enter the Sanatorium (Danny)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And we're back! The reason for such slow updates is that Danny (Mike) walking through the Sanatorium is such a slow part of the game, and it's a solo section, so it was super hard for me to get over my writers block when it came to writing it. I hope this turned out good though! Enjoy!

Danny stared up at the building looming over him.

 It hadn’t taken more than a couple minutes to find the mysterious figure’s footprints etched in the snow. Danny had swiftly followed them, weaving in between the trees as he ventured uphill, closer and closer to the building at the top.

Now he stood in front of the entrance, eyes fixed on the decrepit state of what Nate had once told him was the Blackwood Sanatorium.

_“Yeah, it’s sorta like a hospital.” Nate had said the year before, pointing it out on a map as they hiked. “Dad said that they kept people with long-term illnesses and stuff in there, so they wouldn’t bother other people in the cities.”_

Looking at it now, with vines growing up the brick walls and whole sections of the building caved in, Danny couldn’t help but think that the patients of the fifties probably didn’t have a good time in there. To his left was a rather large sign with the name of the sanatorium, though the words ‘ **CONDEMNED** ’ were written in black spray-paint.

“That’s just great.” Danny whispered aloud, shaking his head as he looked up at the building. “Why wouldn’t I end up following a murderer into the creepiest place on Earth? I’m gonna leave a shitty Yelp review for this.”

And for a second, Danny felt himself hesitate. What was the purpose of him following this mysterious guy into a fucked up old hospital? What did he expect to get when he eventually caught up to the figure? Answers? How could he know he was gonna make it out of this place alive?

He shook his head to clear those thoughts away. The mystery man had been in the mines. He had to know something.

Despite the rubble, that mysterious figure had gone inside, so Danny followed, pushing one of the large entrance doors open.

The inside of the sanatorium looked about as great as the outside. The floors were dirty and stained, with supplies like wheelchairs and medical kits thrown around everywhere. But Danny could see that there had been some sort of attempt to modernize the place. The figure he had been following had set up utility lights in what he assumed was the lobby. Did this guy live here or something?

Danny moved in further, tugging on the door handles ahead of him only to find that something was blocking them. His eyes shifted around the environment in search for a way in.

Okay, he thought. That mystery guy must live further in, so there has to be a way inside of the sanatorium other than the obvious.

The answer turned out to be kind of obvious. Right next to the utility light on the ground was a wide hole in the cement flooring, hidden by the shadows cast from the light. He peeked his head inside and saw a short tunnel leading through to the other side.

Danny promptly dropped down, the light getting dimmer as he ventured further away from the lobby area. As he made his way through the dirty crawlspace, the boy sent up a silent thank you to his brain for not being claustrophobic.

Soon he crawled far enough that a paneled opening lay above him. Danny squatted so as to give his arms room to push the panel out of the way and climb up. He reached his arms up through the hole and kicked the dirt below him, giving himself the jump he needed to drag his body out of the tunnel.

What he found around him was what looked to be the main hallway of the sanatorium, with another large set of double doors in front of him. Danny’s face scrunched up in confusion. How many sets of double doors were in this place? What kind of asshole designs a hospital like this?

But before his brain could continue further in making fun of the sanatorium architect, Danny heard the faint sound of footsteps further in front of him. He rushed forward to the door, trying to get a good look as to what lay inside. The door had one of those slide panels people could use to talk to those on the other side, and the one on this door particularly had been left open.

He put his eye up to the opening, and looked through.

It wasn’t like any hospital he had ever seen before. The room ahead was huge, with plenty of benches and debris everywhere. But Danny didn’t linger on the room, what caught his eye instead was the strange man, walking around with a lantern and… wait, _what?_

The mystery guy was holding bones in his hand, and Danny’s eyes widened as he saw the man throw one of those bones at the two fierce looking wolves that were walking beside him. The one on his left caught it, leading the other wolf away as they moved over to a corner of the room.

Danny hesitantly turned the doorknob, brain racing to think of how he was going to confront this guy, who had fucking wolves with him.

But the door didn’t budge.

He looked down to see the door was tightly locked, and there wasn’t any way for him to get in. Danny backed up a couple of steps, seeing a sign nailed to the door that he hadn’t seen before.

**‘CHAPEL’**

**‘SECURITY PASS REQUIRED’**

He had to find a fucking keycard?

Danny resisted the temptation to rub his temples in frustration. This was turning out to be one hell of a night.

It took only handful of minutes for Danny to collect himself. He found a lantern stashed next to another one of the utility lights in the hallway, and had decided to go down one of the branching hallways that had the sign **‘ADMIN’** hanging near the top. Maybe he could find another way through without needing a keycard. This place was ridiculously old, if the sign outside was right, and there could be another way in.

The sanatorium had been established in 1922, the sign had told him. Well, he thought as he entered the admin hallway, bet no one thought a skinny, scared shitless kid was going to be walking around in this place in 2017. Surprises, surprises.

The state of the sanatorium didn’t allow him to go very far down the hallway. There were two ways that he could chose to go that hadn’t been completely destroyed: the administrative office, and the morgue.

Danny knew which one he was going in first.

The admin office didn’t have much left intact. The shelves were empty and the windows broken, blowing in the cold, snowy air that Danny had ran through earlier. The only item that seemed searchable was the desk off to the side of the room. Scattered on the desktop were piles of papers, the ink having faded on the reports long ago.

Danny picked up a newspaper that seemed oddly placed in the top corner and turned it over to read.

**‘REPORTER ASSAULTED ON BLACKWOOD MOUNTAIN’** the headline read. ‘Reporter from the Washington State Tribune was assaulted and hospitalized by security at the Blackwood Sanatorium.’

An assault from 1952? Danny thought. How long had this place been abandoned?

Either way, the person who had been stationed at this desk probably wasn’t too happy with the publicity. Danny absentmindedly patted the desktop. No worries man, he thought. You’re long gone now.

He lingered around the desk a little longer, searching through the desk drawers for anything that could help him out. Of course, there was nothing.

“Fuck.” Danny muttered, the light of the lantern casting shadows on the walls as he walked. “I do have to go to the morgue, don’t I?”

The boy made his way out of the office, and turned to go down the right most hallway, following the signs leading him down. As he passed by a broken window, a gust of wind blew through, making him shiver.

Now that most of his adrenaline had died down from chasing Will through the freezing forest, Danny could begin to feel the aches and pains that had slowly entered his body. He looked down at himself and was surprised at how ragged he looked.

His jacket was ripped, the sleeves torn and the seams ripped. His jeans and most of his body was covered in dirt, if not snow or coal dust. He had opened some cuts on his hand from climbing up the railing in the mines, and he could already feel bruises coming in on his legs.

The observations only furthered his resolve. He was going to get answers if it fucking killed him.

Danny continued down the path to the morgue, but quickly got sidetracked when he saw another room off to the side. He hustled towards it, hoping that something good would be inside to make his little detour worth it.

He’s not quite sure if the medical report can be classified as “worth it.”

He finds the report on another desk, but this paper is different from the newspaper. All of the writing is still very legible, so he skims it.

“12 miners… collapse of the mine… subsequent rescue…” He reads aloud. There had been a mine collapse? Well, that wasn’t too uncommon, especially for their time. It was the words further down the page that made him raise an eyebrow.

“Expected to find emancipated shells of men, starved and confused… however, miners appear cogent and relatively healthy… seem to be affected by their time in the mine… strict 24-hour observation.” He read.

How was that possible? The report claimed that the men had been trapped beneath the ground for 23 days, there was no way that those men could have come out of that event healthy.

Regardless, that was enough sleuthing for now. Danny put the report back where he found it, and continued to the morgue, going down a flight of stairs as he did so. He ducked behind some wooden boxes once when he heard the distinct sound of wolves growling, but nothing came of it so he pushed onwards. He turned the corner to see a set of doors propped open with a small desk.

Stuck standing straight up on the desk was what looked to be a machete. Danny inched closer, and after checking to make sure that nothing bad was going to happen, he gripped the knife tightly and pulled it out.

It was a heavy weight in his hand, but Danny felt as though he could handle the weapon pretty well if the situation called for it. Hopefully, no situation would call for it.

He pushed in further, maneuvering out of the way of the table. He tucked the machete into one of the jean loops that was sewn down his thigh on his jeans.

Danny had never really known what those were for before, but they were coming in handy now.

He passed by a couple more offices, but decided not to go in. He had chewed up enough time already in the previous rooms. As the seconds ticked by, Danny could tell he was getting closer to the morgue. He passed by a skeleton hanging in the corner, and he turned to see another utility light pointing towards open doors.

As he walked closer, the sound of something moving gradually got louder. It was a metallic squeak, moving in a rhythm.

He entered the room, only to recoil in horror.

In the center of the room was a severed human arm, methodically moving back and forth on a table. It seemed to be jerry-rigged to something under a wooden board to keep it moving.

So that was what the squeak was.

Danny slowly moved in closer, doing his best to decipher what was going on. The hand looked very much dead, with the skin sagging against the bones and a medical tag wrapped around the wrist.

“Is this what he feeds them?” Danny pondered out loud, his hand drifting to turn and see what was written on the medical tag.

Big mistake.

Danny screamed as the wood around the hand snapped, and the jaws of a very sharp, very painful bear trap sprang up, capturing two of his fingers.

Danny’s screams of immense pain echoed off of the walls, his breathing growing to pants of pain. From further down, he could hear growling, and his panic grew even more. Had the wolves heard his screams? Were they coming for him?

He set down the lantern that had been in his right hand quickly, and unsheathed the machete from his thigh on instinct. Danny looked between the machete and his hand in growing fear.

There were two ways this could go. He could either try and pry the bear trap open and possibly break the only weapon he had, or amputate his pinkie and ring finger.

Okay.

He tried his best to open the bear trap as much as possible, only succeeding in shutting the trap on his fingers again, cutting further into the skin. Gripping the machete handle like his life depended on it, Danny tried again. It was successful in that he got his ring finger out, but his pinkie was still very much caught, and the growling of the wolves was only getting closer by the second.

Before he could second guess himself, Danny sliced of his pinkie finger.

“AHHH! FUCK!” He yelled, blood dripping to the floor from his stumpy finger. He quickly scanned the room, running over to the open first aid box that was in one of the corners. He wrapped gauze and medical tape around the stump, hoping that the 60-year-old medical equipment would help the bleeding.

Danny sheathed the now bloody machete and picked up his lantern again. Despite the painful throbbing of his lost finger, he had to keep pushing forward.

Luckily for him, the very next room held the morgue.

The room was a straight up dead end. There was one door leading out, but it only led straight back into the chapel AND it needed the keycard he was trying to avoid.

“What- are you serious? I still have to find a fucking keycard?!” Danny exclaimed in anger, eyeing the sign. Alright then, fine.

He creeped over to the shelves on his left, where jars upon jars were sitting on the shelves. Danny held his lantern up higher to get more light, and tensed upon seeing a human head floating around and staring back at him. At least, he thought it was human. The head was pale white, with the skin almost constricting around the skull. Its eyes were milky, the flesh around the eye sockets greyed and sunken in. Even the teeth were bizarre, sharp to the point that they almost looked like fangs.

What the hell was going on in this damn sanatorium?

Danny decided to test his luck and began to pull open the doors to the cold chambers.

The first holds nothing, just another medical tag. The writing is odd however; it said that the man had died via an attack by a fellow inmate, by fatal laceration to the throat.

The next one he pulled out doesn’t have a body either. All there is is an old blanket and a medical report that says the patient died with sections of the kidneys and intestines apparently eaten by the attacker.

This didn’t sound like a good place to be.

Danny kinda hits the jackpot on the third cold chamber. The smell of decaying flesh greeted him as he rolled the body out, but tucked into the breast pocket of this body is the chapel keycard he needed.

He grabbed the keycard as fast as possible, and ran to the chapel door. The keycard system somehow still works, and Danny isn’t one to look a gifted horse in the mouth, so he opened the door, and bounded for the stairs leading back up to the ground floor.

That’s when the wolf popped out.

Danny let out a scream and sprinted up the steps, not needing to look back to know the animal is chasing him. His mind is on autopilot, his feet following the signs to the chapel, running down hallways and cutting corners. He sees an entrance up ahead, and just after he makes it through, slammed the door shut.

The wolf continued to bark behind the door, but Danny is safe. Aside from the barking though, his ears pick up another door closing, and he looks through the huge circular window on his right to see the mystery figure exit the chapel.

Trying to avoid wasting time, he continued down more stairs, and ends up hoping down a part that had broken down, right back into the main hallway from before.

“Of course.” Danny sighed. “We’ve come full circle.”

At least now he actually had the keycard to get into the chapel. Danny headed towards the door, swiftly unlocking the entrance. The door swung open and he stepped instead, only to be greeted by another wolf, flashing its teeth and barking at him.

“AH!” he screamed, the wolf staring him down. “Okay, okay…” Danny said, as he brought his hands up to try and calm the animal. It sorta works, because the wolf does back off, its growls lessening in strength, getting less defensive as the seconds tick by.

The wolf sat down in a huff, eyes still trained on Danny, but the atmosphere much less threatening than before. Despite the fear coursing through him, Danny approached the animal, arm outstretched in a sign of peace.

“Okay, easy boy.” He muttered under his breath. “Be a good boy… I’m more of a cat kinda guy, but you don’t seem so bad…”

The wolf sniffed his hand before licking it, and that was signal enough to Danny that they were good. He backed off soon after, searching the room for anything useful to him.

To his right is a wired off room, but through a hole in the fence he sees something that gets his hopes up.

A revolver.

He grabbed it and Danny smirked to himself as he tucked the gun in his jacket pocket. That was his now, thank you very much.

In another small room, he finds a well-kept office with the desk lamp still on. On the bulletin board, up against the inner wall, is a bunch of newspaper clippings and papers surrounding a map of Blackwood Mountain.

There are circles that mark sightings, but of what? Danny inched closer, reading the titles of the articles. ‘Footprints Found’, ‘Bigfoot Sighted’, ‘Local Man Found Dead’. There are blurry photos attached around the edges too, writing scrawled onto the clippings that read ‘LIARS’.

But what makes Danny’s blood run cold is the writing on one area of the map, where the mysterious figure had written, ‘American girls died’.

There was no way he wasn’t referencing Li’a and Jonicia.

The anger that had been pushed away quickly returned to the forefront of Danny’s mind. First it had been Li’a and Jonicia, now it was Will.

Danny gripped the revolver in his pocket a little tighter before moving on.

However, there isn’t much left for him to find. There’s a chest full of bones, but the bones look more animal than human, so he turned and fed it to the wolf. The wolf makes happy noises in his direction, so Danny assumes that they’re friends now.

In his head, he’s named the big guy ‘Wolfie’.

Soon there is nothing left for him to do but head towards the door the stranger had walked through. But when he gets to the end of the chapel, he isn’t surprised to find it closed shut with a padlock.

“Well fuck this.” Danny said, before aiming the revolver at the padlock and firing.

_KA-BANG!_

The door slammed open from the force of the shot, which echoed through the chapel. Danny pushed on through, following hallway paths and down more stairs before he arrived at yet another locked door.

He pushed a barrel out of the way of the door and aimed the gun at the lock again.

_KA-BANG!_

The lock exploded, but with it also came a few sparks from the bullet hitting the metal. The sparks hit the ground on the other side of the door, starting a small fire.

Danny pushed open the door.

Not the smartest thing to do.

The push only fanned the flames, which hit gasoline that had been lying on the floor. The fire began to spread, and Danny’s eyes widened as he saw the barrels ahead that read ‘FLAMMABLE LIQUID’ on the side.

“Shit… shit! SHIT!” He yelled, turning to make a run for it. He makes it a few feet before the barrels explode in a combination of fire and metal, which body slam him into the ground.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Almost 3500 words for just one chapter? This is the longest chapter I've ever written, jeez.


	14. Searching the Station (Sage)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Regular updates?? In this fic?? It's more likely than you think.

It’s an oddly silent walk down to the cable car station.

Sage and Ise had agreed to head to the station first in hopes of getting help; the cable car was the only way on and off of the mountain, so it would be best to start their search there.

But a few minutes into their trek back down the path they had come from, all conversation stopped.

Sage walked ahead of Ise by a couple of feet, subconsciously forging a path safe enough for her to follow. He was so focused on searching the environment for threats, it took him a while to realize how quiet his girlfriend had gotten.

He stopped in his tracks, feet sinking into the fresh snow as he turned around.

Ise had her arms wrapped tightly around herself, eyes looking into the distance as if lost in thought.

When she realized that they had come to a stop, she snapped out of her trance, making eye contact with Sage.

The boy gave her a small smile.

“Hey, you okay?”

He could see the hesitation on her face at the question. It would be simple, it would be easy to say yes and just keep moving. But Alisa had said that Nathan had _died_ , and while Sage had never been close to the guy, he was still shaken up from the incident. He couldn’t imagine what someone like Ise, who had known him for years, was going through.

“I’m… alive.” Ise replied, taking a step forward. “I mean, I’m still kinda… processing? It’s weird, I’m being weird.”

“No,” Sage said, leaning in to hug his girlfriend, “you’re not. This is all crazy hard and scary and you’re not being weird. You’re doing great.”

Ise let herself linger in his arms before she pulled away, a tight smile on her lips.

“Thanks.” A pause, and then, “We should keep moving.”

Sage nodded, moving out of the hug, but not before grabbing Ise’s right hand to guide her back down the path.

They began to walk again, the air around them quiet save for the wind passing by them.

To be honest, Sage was a little glad the forest was being so silent. While they had been searching for Ise’s bag, several loud, terrifying shrieks had rung through the trees, and they unnerved him to the core. There was no animal that made a sound like _that_. So the less he heard from the Blackwood forest, the better.

The two of them eventually made it down to the cable car station, entering the small clearing that had been made near one edge of the mountain.

As they grew closer, Ise spoke up.

“Should we have checked?” She asked in a small voice. Sage turned around, confusion evident on his face. Ise did her best to clarify.

“Like, Nate. I know what Alisa and Juls said, but, should we have checked? To make sure?”

“No.” Sage replied, and he could tell the answer surprised her. Probably not what she had been expecting to hear. “But listen, there are some things that once you see, you can never unsee.”

Ise let out the breath that she had been holding in, and nodded in agreement.

They moved closer to the cable car entrance, the snow whipping around their faces. Sage’s eyes locked onto something shiny glinting in the moonlight near the door. As he got closer, his eyes widened.

“An ax!” He exclaimed, letting go of Ise’s hand to rush forward. He wrapped his hands around the handle of the weapon and pulled, plucking it out from the metal of the station door. He turned around to look at Ise, feeling slightly more confident.

“I feel better with an ax.”

Ise rolled her eyes in the way she did whenever she wanted to make fun of him for being a stereotypical boy. She moved past Sage, going to tug on the station door handle.

When the door didn’t open, both of their hearts dropped.

“It’s locked?!” Ise shouted, now using both hands to tug on the handle. “What the fuck?!”

She aimed her head to look at him as she continued her efforts on the door.

“Sage, it’s locked. Why don’t we chop it down?”

Sage brought his hands up in front of him, a universal sign for her to stop and listen.

“Wait wait wait,” He started, coaxing Ise into stopping her efforts on the door. He looked out into the forest before continuing, “If we start axing stuff down, the killer or whatever is going to hear us. We gotta look for another way in, like….”

The boy scanned the cable station in fervor. They couldn’t get in from the right, since that was the drop off from the mountain and where the line for the cable car went down. Over to the left was the back of the station, made of solid metal, but, wait…

“Here!” He exclaimed, pointing a little bit behind them. Ise navigated around him, following his eyes to the half open rectangular window tucked into the side of the station.

“What, this?” Ise asked, eyes narrowing suspiciously at the entrance.

Sage nodded.

“I can’t fit through, but you can babe.”

Sage watched as Ise whipped her face around to stare at him. She looked ready to protest splitting up, but seemed to think better of it. Considering the circumstances that they were in, what else was there to do?

“Okay, let’s do this.” Ise stated, bringing her hands together to crack her knuckles. The two of them moved together towards the window, their muscles tensed as they focused to push the window further open. The duo pushed as far as the hinges could go, leaving an opening just wide enough for Ise to squeeze through.

Sage kneeled on the snowy ground, hands cupped so as to make a step for Ise to hoist herself through. The girl stepped into his hands, and reached her arms through the top of the window. Ise latched her arms to something on the inside, gaining the leverage she needed to pull her torso through, body teetering half in and half out of the station.

Sage heard her mutter something about having a volleyball body, this should be easy, before suddenly she was inside.

“Ah!” Ise yelped, Sage immediately rushing closer to the window so try and see what had happened. “I’m okay! Just, it’s pitch black in here, and uh, there’s a lot of stuff, so gimme a minute.”

“I’m right here babe, I gotchu.” Sage replied, hoping that his words would ease the anxiety he was sure was coursing through Ise’s veins.

From inside, he could hear the crashing of some things as Ise did her best to maneuver towards the door. It wasn’t long until there was a small click, and the door opened.

“You did it!” Sage said, rushing over to hug his girlfriend. Ise giggled into his shoulder, and the sound lifted the fears in Sage’s heart.

This was crazy, but they were doing okay.

Sage let go, quickly getting back to business. He looked around the edges of the wall near the door until he felt a switch. He flicked on the light.

“Goddamn…” Sage whispered, scanning the state of the cable car station.

The place was a mess.

There were bags and equipment thrown all over the place with some of the inner windows smashed. The station looked like a typhoon had gone through it, graffiti covering the walls and papers everywhere. What the fuck had happened?

“What happened here?” Ise said aloud, her thoughts echoing those of Sage. “This is crazy, we were just here like an hour or two ago, this had to have just happened!”

The two tentatively stepped forward, surveying the chaos in the station. Ise walked further in as Sage headed over to the cable car controls, only for his panic to grow.

“What is the cable car doing all the way out there?!” He exclaimed. The cable car wasn’t in its docking port here at the station. Instead, it was a good ten to fifteen feet out, hanging in the open air above the mountain. Sage felt his heart sink deeper as he studied the controls.

“That maniac! We don’t have a key and the car is all the way out there; He has to know that this is the only way back!”

“Sage…”

The boy tore his eyes away from the controls, gaze focused now on Ise, who was clutching her chest tightly.

He followed her gaze up the small set of stairs to the office area of the station, and read the words spray-painted on the wall. What he thought was graffiti, was not graffiti.

_DIE DIE DIE DIE DIE_

Ahh yes, how friendly.

Sage took Ise’s hand in his own once again, and slowly led them both up into the office area. There isn’t much left to see that the maniac hadn’t already destroyed; Papers were shredded and shelves torn apart.

The one thing Sage did find however, was what looked to be an old map of the mountain. With Ise’s help, the two of them hung the framed map back up on its hook and stepped back to study it.

In the middle was the station, that was where they were. Following a path up the left was the way back up to the lodge, where Alisa, Juls, and Riley should all be. There was another dotted line leading from the lodge to… a sanatorium? Sage faintly remembered Nathan mentioning something about that place, but he couldn’t remember the details very well.

There was one more dotted line on the map. It led from the cable car station up a ranger path, to a fire tower further up the mountain.

“That fire tower!” Ise shouted, a glimmer of hope in her eyes. Sage gave a glance at the girl, a fond smile gracing his face. That had been what, the second time she had said what he was thinking? Ha, it was like they were meant to be or something.

“Fire towers usually have people stationed there in the summers to make sure forest fires don’t start up. It has to have a radio up there; the lack of cell service up here makes it impossible for them to use anything but a radio to call in emergencies.” Ise explained.

This time, Sage turned his whole body to look at his girlfriend. She met his look.

“What?”

“How in the world do you know that?”

Ise smiled again, her eyes drifting away in memory, thinking of a nicer time than the one they were in right now.

“Alisa told me about it a couple months ago. She played a game called Firewatch that was pretty much that concept, and she couldn’t stop gushing to me about it.”

Ise seemed to snap herself away from the memory quickly. Sage could tell from the way her shoulders grew tense again, and her feet started fidgeting.

“If we can get up there and use the radio, someone has to pick up the signal. We gotta get to that tower!”

“Right.” Sage said in agreement. The two went back down the stairs and out into the snow together, marching towards the ranger path in sync.

The next several minutes of following the path are in silence, and Sage would be unnerved by the quiet if he didn’t know Ise so well. So much has happened since they set foot on the mountain, it’s hard to process it all.

Nathan was, _no_ , is dead. What would happen when they get off the mountain? They’d have to answer to the police and catch the killer too, depending on how the rest of tonight would go. Not to mention the fact that, fuck, Danny and Will didn’t even know what was going on. They were going to be crushed, if Juls and Alisa’s reactions were anything to go by. That being said, therapy was definitely going to happen as well and, oh no, what were they going to tell Nate’s parents?

The thought almost brought tears to Sage’s eyes. The Loya’s would be devastated. No amount of money was going to heal the fact that they had lost all three of their kids on the same godforsaken mountain, one right after the other.

That was it. Sage had made his decision.

This mountain was fucking cursed.

“Babe.”

The term of endearment snapped Sage out of his thoughts.

“Sorry, what?”

“Do you hear that?”

Sage stopped his walking, and listened. Now that he was paying attention to the forest, he could hear what Ise had been talking about. It sounded like mooing coming from around them, but that couldn’t be right. It was some kind of animal, but what?

Ise continued walking up the mountain after seeing that he heard the sound too, and Sage swiftly followed after her. He had to stop getting lost in his thoughts, there wasn’t time to think, only time to do, to act.

They end up at the edge of one of the many cliffs jutting out of the mountain. It isn’t exactly where Sage would like to be at the moment, but what they find is worth the unease.

Ise spots it first, and seriously, get your head in the game Sage, wake up! He would have seen it to if he had been paying attention. It’s a golden dangly earring lying on the cliffs edge, with a sign next to it that must have read ‘DANGER – CLIFF EDGE’ before it had broken in half.

Ise picked up the earring gently, staring at it for long enough that Sage began to grow worried.

“Ise, what’s wrong?”

There is a long beat of silence, and then:

“This is Li’a’s.”

The words make Sage freeze. Out of everyone in the gang, Ise had always been the closest to Li’a. The two had been friends long before the group had formed in high school, and Jonicia used to tease Ise, saying she made a better sister for Li’a than Jonicia did.

When Li’a had run after her sister into that snow storm a year ago, everything changed. When the girls didn’t return the next morning, Danny had comforted Ise the whole day, the two holding each other tightly in the corner as she cried into his shoulder endlessly. Nathan may have lost two little sisters, but Ise had lost her best friend, and the pain was just as tangible now as it was back then.

Ise gripped the earring tighter in the palm of her hand and looked over the edge of the cliff. Her eyes squinted in the wind and snow, and it occurred to Sage that she just might be searching for two skeletons down below.

He stepped forward and put a hand on her shoulder, causing the girl to jump and turn around, moving away from the edge. Her eyes looked ready to overflow with tears.

Sage opened his arms for her, and Ise slotted herself in them, nuzzling her face into his shoulder and squeezing. They stood like that for a few minutes until Ise’s breathing could calm down. She looked up at him, her mouth opening to say thank you, but the sentence never comes.

Instead, they listen as a deafening high-pitched shriek is emitted from somewhere in the forest, the sound echoing against the moos that had gradually gotten louder as they spent time near the cliff’s edge.

The echo disappeared after a few seconds, but the mooing only grew louder. One second, there is nothing in the trees ahead that lead them back to the ranger’s path.

The next second, a large herd of elf? Caribou? are walking straight towards them, and they don’t look happy.

The group let out harsh breaths through their nostrils, and stomp their hooves at the duo. He can only assume that the shriek they had heard in the woods before had somehow agitated the animals, which were getting closer and closer to them.

Sage instinctively pushed Ise behind him, using himself as sort of a shield.

“Sage,” Ise asked in a panicked voice, “What’s going on? What are we gonna do?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It's so interesting to write this on my own terms, cause there are things that definitely don't fit my friends that I can easily take out. Like Em and Matt tiptoeing on the guard railing to get out of the cable car station? What was that for?? I ain't doing that  
> These chapters are also getting longer and longer to write, which I think is a good thing, even if my fingers don't like me for all the typing i have to do haha ^^;  
> Almost half way there! My outline has this story at 35 total chapters, and this was number 14, so yay for progress!


	15. Meeting the Psycho (Riley)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Welcome back! To both me and anyone reading this, haha.  
> I got bored last night, thinking about how I was running out of things to do during the summer, when I thought "What are you talking about? You still have UD,UM to work on!"  
> So that's why we have this chapter now.   
> Enjoy!

_Sento una voce che piange lontano  
Anche tu, sei stato forse abbandonato?_

Riley wouldn’t necessarily call herself a classical music type of person.

She has an innate love of musicals and all that is performable, but most classical music is meant to be listened to and appreciated in a separate way that she can’t quite describe. With classical (in this case Italian) music, Riley can just shut her brain _off_. All she has to do is focus on the music, and not the fact that she is back on Blackwood Mountain, the fact that she’s reunited with all of her high school friends, friends whose faces she saw break down when they all realized that Li’a and Jonicia were never—

Riley shook her head fiercely, and turned up the volume on her phone. Her water-soaked hands adjusted her earbuds before she settled back into the sudsy bath.

No. This was what classical music was for, for her to think about the music instead of anything else.

After the basement boiler adventure with Nate, Riley was ready to soak in the bath till Danny and Will returned with food and they could all eat around the fireplace. Of course, Nate had yet to restore the power so all she had for light was a handful of candles she had found under the sink, but that added to the mood of her bath.

Her eyes closed shut as the music swelled in her ears, the Italian singer hitting a crescendo at the chorus. This was nice. Relaxing. Riley needed this after the whirlwind of emotions the last couple hours had produced from her.

Just a couple more songs and she was as good as new.

SLAM!

Riley opened her eyes in surprise and whipped her head to look around the room.

It’s darker than it was before, and she realizes that some of the candles have gone out. Did the force of the door closing shut do that? Wait, had someone come in and looked at her?

The music can still be heard coming from her earbuds, so she quickly turns off her music app before surveying the room again.

Slowly, Riley exited the bathtub, moving to grab the towel she had set next to it around her body. Water dripped from her legs on to the floor, and she shivered as the cold lodge air surrounded her.

What was taking Nate so long? The power and heat had yet to come back online, what was causing the delay?

“Guys?” Riley said towards the door.

“You guys out there?”

She doesn’t get a reply.

She’s starting to get fed up with how freaked out this is making her feel, so Riley makes her way over to the bench where she had set her—

“Where are my clothes?!” Riley half-shouts, head ducking around the bench to see if she had missed them.

Nope. Her clothes were gone, except a pair of her grey wool socks placed neatly on the wood.

What the fuck was going on?

Riley redos the towel so that it’s wrapped as tightly around her body as she can manage and puts on the socks. Across the room, she spots a robe hung upon a drying rack. She rushed towards it and quickly wrapped the garment around her, trying to stifle the cold air.

Alright, so she now has two layers on so that’s not too bad, and her feet are no longer freezing. Small victories.

Riley made her way across the room, tucking her phone into one of the robe’s pockets before wrapping her hand around the doorknob.

Who was doing this? Why? Was it her friends? No, they weren’t the type of people to pull pranks like this. Alisa had her anxiety and most of the others were too nice to do more than just verbal teasing and wordplay.

Maybe Nate would. No, Nate _definitely_ would, but with this many friends around, they surely would have convinced him out of this, right?

Riley opened the door, fully prepared for someone to pop out and surprise her. She could have handled that, a little prank where they could all laugh and forget about it in the future.

She was not prepared for this.

The entire third floor had been covered with little lit candles. They looked to be strategically placed to give off as much light as possible in each area. Riley took a step forward.

She would say something, but she found herself speechless.

As Riley took a few more tentative steps, her eyes adjusted to the dim light. Soon she could make out the outline of balloons down to her left, with arrows painted onto them.

At least, she hoped it was paint.

The balloons were tied to the railings of the banister, and as she moved forward to look over the edge, she saw that both the second and first floor stairs were covered in more balloons and candles.

If she was anywhere else but the mountain, Riley might (emphasis on might) have found this kind of romantic. But she wasn’t dating anybody right now, and she certainly had no interest in any of her friends that way (no offense), so if anything, everything just felt a touch too creepy.

Riley began to walk down the third-floor path, slowly following the arrows on the balloons. Before she began to make her way down the stairs however, she spotted a flashlight tucked into a shadowy corner. Riley grabbed it and turned on the device, aiming the light at every dark spot she saw, hoping to see a familiar face.

“Ise? Alisa? Will?” Riley called out, flashlight aimed steadily in front of her.

“Hello? Where are you guys? Can anyone hear me?”

The lodge is eerily silent in response to her questions, and the quiet makes a shiver run down her spine.

If this was a horror movie that she was watching, Riley would be chastising the main character for following the balloons when it would obviously just lead her to the killer. But now that she was in the position herself, it was all she could think to do. Riley had to find out what was going on, and hiding out on the third floor for the rest of the night just felt stupid.

She might be leading herself into danger, but at least that meant she would get some answers.

Soon enough, Riley’s feet take her to the first floor, where there are no signs of any of her friends. Riley doesn’t want anything else more in her life right now than to just have one of her friends going through this horror movie with her. At least then she would know she isn’t going out of her mind.

After confirming that there is no one in the living room, Riley continued to follow the balloons until she sees a bright light coming from a room straight ahead of her.

Seeing the light makes her stop in her tracks. Wasn’t the generator still off….?

The light is coming from the theater room, and all the balloons look to be pointing her in that direction, so Riley does as she’s told and walks in.

The doors slam shut behind her.

“AHH!” Riley screamed, eyes glued to the now closed doors. She has it on good authority that those doors are probably now locked.

The theater room isn’t that big of a room. The Loya’s had had it put in when they first constructed the lodge, with two rows of wide movie seating and a built-in screen and projector.

It’s the projector that is emitting the light, though all that’s on the movie screen is sheer white.

Riley has the edges of the robe clutched tightly in her hands when the voice begins to speak.

_“Hello Riley.”_

Riley whipped her head around the room, frantically looking for the source of the voice. But it was raspy, as if it was being pitched lower than the owner’s original range, and it was obviously electronic.

_“Have you been looking for me?”_

“What?” Riley asked in panic, eyes still searching the room. “I-- What are you--”

_“It doesn’t matter. You’re only going to see what I want you to see. And I have a lot to show you.”_

The screen in front of Riley flickered, and she almost dropped her flashlight at the footage.

It was her, less than ten minutes ago, listening to music and soaking in the bathtub. Someone had gone in and videotaped her, filmed her as she had relaxed in the water.

Suddenly, Riley felt disgusting. This freak had invaded her privacy to do this and it felt so violating.

“What is this?!” Riley demanded. “Who are you? What are you doing?!”

_“She’s beautiful isn’t she?”_

Riley blinked. What? The voice had replied to her as if she hadn’t even spoken.

_“She’s like a bathing bird. Do you think she has any idea what’s been occurring in her absence?”_

The sentence makes Riley’s blood run cold. The lodge was empty. It had been at least an hour since she had last seen her friends.

Oh no.

“How—Why--, What did you do?! WHERE ARE MY FRIENDS?!”

_“Let me inform you Riley, these were the last happy moments of your life.”_

The screen lingers just a little bit longer on her in the bath before the video ends, and a new one begins.

It’s Alisa, her voice going hoarse as she screamed that this couldn’t be happening. Her face is white with terror, and her hands are raised above her head, tied up against a concrete wall. Alisa is crying as she screams, and then the camera pans over to what she had been shouting at.

“NATE!” Riley screamed, her voice echoing the pleas of Alisa as she watched a gigantic circular saw begin to slice through Nate’s abdomen.   

Blood began to pour out as Nate screamed, the saw spinning further and further into this body.

“AHHH! OH MY GOD, WHAT DID YOU DO?!” Riley yelled out to the voice, her eyes still watching the horror in front of her. Nate’s body is sliced entirely in half, and his chin dropped down to touch his chest.

Nate was dead.

_“I’m going to give you ten seconds.”_

Riley almost drops her flashlight again at the sentence, and she begins to panic.

Ten seconds?! There wasn’t enough time to do anything in ten seconds! Was this freak coming to get her? What was going on? If Nate is really dead, then where are the rest of her friends?

Was she going to die?

_“Nine.”_

Riley looked around for exit doors out of the room. She was in a fucking bath towel, could she seriously outrun this guy?

_“Eight.”_

“No no no no no no no no!!”

_“Seven.”_

A pause.

Then the theatre doors slammed open.

Riley screamed, as she whipped around to face the figure.

They were tall, dressed in messy, blood-stained overalls. The figure had put a mask on their face, bright white with dark eyes and a cracked scar running down the middle. In their right hand, they held a tank of some sort. Knock-out gas??

The figure slowly moved towards her.

Right next to her, propped up on the mantle in the room was a ceramic, blue vase.

Riley throws it straight at the figure.

It hits the psycho straight in the chest, and it buys her just a few seconds for Riley to run straight past them and slamming open one of the exit doors to run like hell.

“Shit shit shit shit shit.” Riley repeats over and over, a mantra as she ran down the short hallway. She has her bath towel and robe clutched tightly in one hand, and a death grip on the flashlight.

The door at the end of the short hallway leads to one of the bottom floor guest bedrooms. Riley slammed the door shut behind her and frantically turned her flashlight on everything in the room. It was full of boxes and a single bed in the center.

She contemplates hiding underneath the bed for about a millisecond before realizing how dumb that would be. Instead, she pivots over the bed and as her feet touch the other side, the door behind her bangs open.

Riley doesn’t allow herself to turn around and make eye contact with the masked psycho guy. She just keeps running, weaving her way through hallways until she reaches the end of one. The only way to continue is behind a familiar looking door that leads down to the basement.

She hurriedly opens the door and closes it behind her, feet racing down the basement stairs. At the last second, Riley remembers the same broken stair she had come across last time, and she leaps over the crumbling concrete.

That buys her a couple more seconds.

Riley sprints the rest of the way down the basement hallway before ducking behind one of the many shelves. She allows herself to catch her breath while she can, because this is in no way over. Hiding right now gives her time to recover and confuse the psycho, who has just turned the corner to come walking down the basement hallway. Riley quietly shuts of her flashlight and covers her hand over her mouth, willing her body to breathe slower, regardless of how exhausted she feels.

The psycho pauses right on the other side of her shelf, and Riley notices that he seems to be limping.

_“Riley. Why are you hiding? Hm?”_

The voice is still computerized and distorted, even from right next to her. The figure must be using some kind of vocal distorter.

_“Come on out Riley. Why prolong the inevitable?”_

From the next shelf over, Riley spots the baseball bat she had seen when she was down here with Nate.

Oh god, Nate.

The reminder of what happened to her friend makes Riley see red.

Fine, the psycho wants her to come out? She’ll come out.

Riley effectively sprints from the shelf to the bat. The psycho is right behind her, arms reaching out with a gas mask to try and grab at her face.

Riley grips the handle of the bat as tight as she can with just one hand, and swings it in the psycho’s face.

It’s a direct hit, if the groan that follows is any clue. She drops the bat like it’s on fire and continues to sprint down the next hallway, desperately trying to get away from her pursuer.

She is soon faced with yet another door, and Riley allows herself to look behind her as she jiggles the doorknob, which seems to be stuck.

Was it just her, or was the killer walking slow on purpose?

The doorknob finally decides to cooperate with her and she opens the door before quickly slamming it shut behind her. There is a lock in the upper corner of the door, so Riley locks it.

The next room is cluttered with old props. Mannequins, boxes, chairs, anything you could think of. But there is a clear path to—wait, another door?

Riley rushes over and opens the door, as the psycho behind her tries to open the one she just locked.

What she enters isn’t another room, it’s something else entirely.

It’s as if the Loya’s had built the lodge on top of some underground passageway, that’s the only way Riley can describe it. It’s a very long hallway, but it looks as if it’s been around for forever. A lot of the wooden beams are old and decrepit, and parts of the ceiling have fallen through too.

But Riley doesn’t have the time to linger on her confusion. The sole emotion fueling her right now is fear. She shuffles down to the end of the hallway. It forks, between going further left and going straight into what seems to be a non-functioning elevator.

While Riley admits that the elevator looks like a damn good hiding spot, her adrenaline is telling her to run. She can’t risk getting caught by the killer because she decided to hide.

Riley turns to her left and begins to run again, making her way down the next creepy hallway. As she gets near the end, she sees wooden beams blocking most of the way out. But there is a wide enough space for her to climb through if she could just—

It’s then that the psycho appears, right in front of her very eyes.

_“So sorry.”_

Riley drops her flashlight, trying to utilize both hands to escape the gas mask being placed on her face.

The psycho had been right behind her before, how in the world had they circled around to meet her here? What was this place anyway?

She does her best to put up a fight and scream for help, but the killer is just as strong as they look.

Their arms wrestle with her to keep Riley in place, and soon enough the gas has fogged up her mind, knocking her out.

The last thought Riley has is that she should have hid.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Obviously there are parts of Riley's chase I didn't include (door handle on top of wine cabinet) but I think I did pretty well on this!  
> It's such a pain trying to describe chase scenes or big environments though, because how am I supposed to differentiate one hallway from another while still keeping it suspenseful?? #writerproblems  
> The next chapter: Sage and Ise head up to the radio tower!


End file.
